Update July 27,2010

Selling the place in Texas and back in an RV just got to be on the move I guess.... should keep a shrink happy figuring that move out ...except I ain't going to pay for one to figure it all out. Will modify post later....

Update

After living in an RV for nine months and traveling around I have decided to settle down in East Texas. I am buying a little ranch (10acres) not to far from Dallas actully. I have started a blog about it. So if your interested here is the link; http://ourtexasranchito.blogspot.com
The merry adventures will continue :)

Auction Day

Today was the day for the Auction at the farm and as I write this it is over and everyone and everything is gone. The day started off by being cloudy and looking like it might rain, not a good sign. Then as the minutes ticked by and I didn't see anyone I began to worry no one was going to come to the Auction. Sort like inviting your friends to a party and no one shows up, only this could be a disaster. Then at 9am some folks arrived and by 9:30 am the front meadow was filling with cars and trucks and folks were walking up to the house along our road. By 10am we had a nice crowd of people listening to the Auctioneer's instructions on how the sale was to proceed and the Auction began.

I listened to the bidding and was trying to figure why some things were going for cheap and why others were going for high prices and I decided to just let it all flow and not worry about it. That didn't last long when the Auctioneer got to the vehicles my nerves were strung tight and the bidding on my pick-up truck started at a hundred dollars ! Yikes, my stomach felt like lead and then the bidding warmed up and I got a nice price for the truck. The next item was my Jeep Cherokee, I got a fair price for it and then the big item the tractor with front loader was being bid on. The bidding was slow at first and then started to pick up and it brought a very nice price. After that I relaxed a bit and went with the flow, some things went for a good price some didn't, in the end I was happy with how things went and was very glad the sale was over.

Lots of folks came up to me and wished me well in my move and in a way I was surprised at how many folks knew me. I just had never thought of who or how many people I met, I guess I made a fairly good impression from the comments of the folks at the Auction. Now is when then Auctioneer and his staff tally the sale and come up with the final proceeds. I think I will be okay with it, I have to be as that is the way it is....

Got her ready for the sale

Spent all day yesterday moving stuff around and loading two hay wagons with stuff for the sale. A lot of thought goes into an Auction sale and I deferred to the ones with the know how about how things work.

We have had several folks drop in on us to look at the tractor and a few more to check out the furniture and other stuff. First thing this morning a two men drove up in the yard and started looking at the tractor, they got a surprise when they turned around and Samantha was standing there with her 9mm. They had driven around our pick up truck that was blocking the driveway to stop folks from dropping in like they did. They were very apologetic just farmers getting an early start and wanted to check out the Tractor before the sale. When I saw Samantha with the pistol the song "Put that pistol down Momma" kept playing in my head and after then men left I laughed about how this would add to our lore in the neighborhood. I was the last one to that party as I was still fighting my way out of my sleeping bag when Samantha went out the door.

Details, Details and more details

Getting down to the last few days and doing all those things that have to wait to the last minute; calling the electric company, telephone company, water district, internet company, TV company, Post Office, Bank, Pharmacy, Doctor's office, on and on it goes. I am sure I forgot somebody just hope it isn't to important.

The Joyful Cottage

One of my friends here in Kentucky is Lady named Ginny she runs a small business out of her home nearby. She has a site and sells gifts and sewing things. She knows her trade and comes
highly recommended by me. I have found her to be knowledgeable and has many useful things for sewers and quilters here is her site.

New Blog

I have started a new blog to report on my travels in an RV.
This is the address link

Hopefully we will have some adventures traveling around in our RV.

New Owners Arrive

Yesterday the new owners arrived with their moving van and filled the
barn with their belongings. Their four children were busy exploring the
place and running about playing. This place will have a lot of life in it with
this family :)

It took all day to unload their moving van because the van couldn't make
it down the driveway. The driveway was laid out for a horse and buggy
not for a big furniture moving van. So the van was parked at the end of
the lane and the boxes of stuff were shuttled back and forth to the barn.
Thank goodness I didn't have to do it.

Closing is done

I signed the closing documents yesterday. I have heard and felt buyer's remorse and now I know how it feels to have seller's remorse. I am going to miss this place and most of my neighbors. I know in a few weeks this will all be behind me and I will be involved in a new adventure. Still I feel a little sad.

The signing of the documents turned out to be a none event things are rather simple here in rural Kentucky not like the passing of papers in other states I have endured.

I have been sorting and packing stuff to fit in the RV. I can't put much in or I will be over weight. So I have contracted to have an auction and sell off most of my personal possessions. I don't own any important or expensive stuff, never could afford them. However, I do have lots of stuff one uses around a farm including a tractor, pickup truck and a jeep, lots of tools of course and other useful items. I hope the weather is good for the auction and that lots of people show up for it and are in a bidding mood.

Since my last post I have been in and out of the hospital with chest pain and had another heart catherization which went well however I suffered continuing pain and the Cardiologist put me on another medication to hopefully stop this new pain. I am hopeful that with this new medication life will be more comfortable. I am sure I will see more doctors and have more procedures; such is life. I am just great-full to be here and enjoy my little bit of this blue green marble spinning in the universe, I sure do love this planet :)

Spring Update

I have been dealing with Heavenly Hollow Real Estate Casey Creek KY. Very nice folks, down to earth plain talking people. Their phone number is 800-798-6545 my Agent is Robby Selch and he knows the area like the back of his hand.

I have gotten an offer for the farm as is normal these days it has a contingency clause and gets a bit complicated. To make a long story short if your interested in the farm offers can still be made if you contact the above office and talk with Robby Selch.

Spring has arrived and the pastures look wonderful so much thick green grass growing so well, makes me beam knowing it was my hard work that improved those pastures. Of course the rains had a lot to do with it too :)

Spring when flowers come up and mud sticks to your wheels on the truck ....aint it wonderful ? Sigh

Happy New Year :)

Happy New Year to one and all. Thanks for all the well wishes it sure feels good to get them.

The latest tests have been good so we are awaiting what the Doctor's want to do next getting old isn't for wimps!

Getting cold here in Kentucky might get some snow this week ... guess OL' Man Winter has found us here in the Blue Grass State. We have lots of wood and two good stoves so we should stay nice and warm no matter what the weather.

I hope the new year brings everyone what ever they want and need.

Done Did It

After what I think is careful thought I have decided to sell the farm. My health hasn't been good lately and unlikely to improve and I just don't have the strength nor endurance to keep this place like I should. So I have put the farm on the market. The real estate office I have selected is United Country Heavely Hollow Real Estate their phone number is 800-798-6545 or their web site is www.unitedcountry.com/caseycreekky
If for some reason the link doesn't work email me or send a comment and I will sort it out for you.

I will miss this place and the friends I have made here, this has been a very special part of my life and I thank the Lord that I have had this special journey.

A Sunday Morning

I awoke to a nice Sunday morning with little patches of ground fog in the pasture. Chores were calling me so I got my lazy self out of bed and fed the pets and made breakfast for myself. There were plenty of hot coals in the kitchen stove this morning so it was no big deal getting that stove going. The weather report said it would be a nice day getting close to sixty degrees so I let the parlor stove go out on its own. I have to remove ashes from both stoves today, I'll do that later on this afternoon or evening.

I went outside to open the chicken house door and noticed that I had some visitors, seems my neighbors cattle found their way into my hay field. I walked the fence line between our property as far as the woods and didn't see any breaks. My only concern was that the cattle would get out and on to the road as I don't have the east side of the hay field fenced. I drove over to my neighbor's house and let one of his sons know about the cattle. My neighbors have seven children, home school them and keep 'em close. The older sons are young men now and very polite, nice to talk to them.

I will have to make a run into town for supplies either today or tomorrow as I am getting low on pet food and feed for my calves. I have to fill the wood boxes to have firewood for tonight. According to the weather guessers we are in for a cold spell with the possibility of a little rain, one can only hope they are right about the rain.

Took a vacation

Hi
I haven't posted in a while as I have taken a vacation, sounds weird that someone who is retired takes a vacation, but what else would you call it? I went to Mexico for two weeks. Visited Lake Chapala and Guadalajara. I liked Mexico, didn't care for the crowds of people in Guadalajara, however the city does have a lot of interesting places to see and places to shop. Having only spent two days in Guadalajara I can't say I know much about it except for the plazas and fountains downtown. If you would like to know more about my trip here is an address to the blog about my vacation here.

Lighting the stove

A couple of cold fronts moved in over Kentucky this week breaking a prolonged spell of way above average temperatures. It sure felt good to feel cool air again. Now it feels more like Autumn, just as it should be around here.

With the lower temps it was time to fire up the old kitchen wood stove. I had started a fire in it a week ago just to make sure everything worked right and that there wasn't anything stuck in the flue like a bird's nest or leaves. I have plenty of dry wood to get the fire started and it started rather easily. After getting a base of hot coals going I found it easy to keep the fire going.

The now familiar sounds of a hot stove and the smell of wood burning fill the house. I find it hard not to hang around the stove and watch and listen to the hiss, pop and crumbling wood in the fire box. I have found I am not the only one who likes to be close to the stove the big yellow lab took over the hearth rug in front of the stove and stuck her nose right under the stove, another satisfied customer.

The big kettle is steaming away and the water tank is hissing a steady tune. It seems like we are a wood fired steam engine powered house now. In a way it is like the house has come alive, the house makes sounds and has movement, there is feeling that something is going on and there is were are staying warm and ready to cook.

The wood yard is still messy but time and energy will cure that and by spring most of the wood will have been burnt in the stoves and we will be stacking wood again for the next winter.

The carpenters were back and they got two windows in upstairs and a storm door hung. This house isn't square or plumb so they had a good time getting the manufactured stuff to fit right. I have more windows on order and another storm door to they have to hang for me. I can do a lot of stuff but doors and windows are a real pain in the pah-toot so I let them with the tools and experience handle the job.

Time's a waste'n here got to get something done like chores and errands, talk with ya'll later.

Bush Hogging

I now have my own tractor with a front loader, however I don't have a bush hog (bush mower) for my tractor yet. I went over to a neighbor's and borrowed his bush hog. This was my first time on the road with the tractor and it was a beautiful morning crisp and sunny. As I rode along on my tractor I found out what it is like to maneuver over the road and get passed by cars and trucks, some folks pass a little to close if you ask me. If folks pass to close and tangle with a tractor it could be serious those big wheels can tear up a car.

After visiting with my neighbor and of course trading gossip and stories drinking coffee, eating another breakfast and analyzing what is wrong with the government we went to his shop. He tried hooking up an older style mower and it wouldn't clear the ground enough to take on the road, so he lent me his regular bush hog. After it was hooked up he noted that it needed a sway bar and proceeded to cut and weld one together, in less than a half hour he had a nice tailored sway bar for the tractor.

So I took the hog and tractor back to my place and ended up mowing the fields for the rest of the afternoon. Gosh those tractors and mowers are loud and after five hours on the tractor your butt is tired your legs weak and you don't hear so good, maybe I need a new muffler for the tractor or ear plugs. I continued to mow the following day, now I am learning a lot more about the lay of the land on the farm and it is lumpy and there are hazards.

I got to close to what I thought was a dry creek and found out it wasn't so dry and it was deep. The tractor and I were at an angle I didn't care for and it had stalled out. I get the tractor started again stopped the mower lifted the mower deck put it in low range and reverse. The tractor backed out of the creek as pretty as you please, thank goodness :) I figured I had better be a little more cautious for the rest of the day so I stayed away from the creek and pond this time around. I also hogged the garden area the weeds had gone wild there and now they are no more. I had a good day and the fields look much better I'll post pictures later.

The sound of rain

The sound of rain on the metal roof and the distant rumble of thunder, once a common sound here at the farm, but of late not so familiar. I always know when it is real thunder and not some farmer blowing up a tree stump, my big yellow Labrador retriever looks for a place to hide, she doesn't like the thunder. She is trying to get behind my old file cabinet right now and won't come out till I move or the thunder is all over.

Yesterday evening we had rain showers that got the ground wet, I didn't think it did much good. This morning it looked like it might rain again. I thought about it and got out to the wood pile and stacked some more wood before the rain started. I also got an old mattress out of the cellar. Gosh that thing was ugly, it is now sitting in the pick up truck bed, getting wet, waiting to be hauled the road for trash day tomorrow. I sure hope they take it.

I have made apple butter and apple sauce just barely enough for myself I may have to make some more for gifts and trading. Peeling and coring the apples is not that hard just tedious after a dozen apples you wonder if it is worth the effort, however once I get that homemade apple butter on my tongue with homemade whole wheat bread I know for sure it was worth all the effort. With my mid-morning break I had coffee, toasted homemade whole wheat bread with peach jam I made myself. I don't even have to blush it was good. I finished off the biscuits this morning as I had biscuits and gravy for breakfast. I guess it is time to make more biscuits just one more thing to do, I guess I will just add it to the list.

So for the rest of the day I will do inside jobs like staining the new doors and if that goes well staining the new wood in the kitchen floor. For a while though I think I will just sit here and listen to the rain on the metal roof. As long as there are no leaks of course. After this long drought that rain sound on the roof is sure welcome.

Update for September

It has been quiet here since the carpenters have departed. They won't be gone for good I still have three windows that need replacing and a barn roof that needs mending.

I have been playing with the fire wood, stacking the wood according to size and dryness. Most of the smaller pieces are drying rather well, the large pieces are a long ways to go yet. This year I got quite a few small irregular shaped pieces which would be time consuming to stack. So I made a crib out of larger blocks to pile the small pieces in so that they will dry and be easily accessible. I hope to get all the wood off the ground before the cold wet weather comes. I hope to put a stove in the cellar to try and heat the house with it. The carpenters suggested this and one of them does it and heats his house all winter that way. I am going over to the Tin Shop and discuss it with them they sell stoves and furnaces and may be able to advise me on what size stove I should have in the cellar.

I have had the termite pest control people over to give me their estimate of the termite and powder post beetle control program. The prices are all over the map and the work they will do and how they will do it varies from complex to simple. My job now is to compare the estimates and choose one to do the work and of course pay for it.

I got new neighbors next door stopped by and introduced myself they seem nice.

Made some apple butter and canned it only eight half pints but that ought to be enough for me this winter. I am planning on putting up seven pints of applesauce too, I love that applesauce.

The weather has stayed warm even though officially it is Autumn, the weather should moderate later this week and .... dare I say it? We might (!) just get some rain. Well let's hope so.

I put up an electric fence to keep the calves in close to the barn the little boys have been naughty and have been running off to play with the neighbors cows. The bigger one got in with the big herd and it will be a while before he is cut out of the herd and sent back to where he belongs. In a couple of months they will be sent to the butchers and a few months after that I will start all over with a few more calves.

Photos of construction

I don't think the pictures do justice to the project there was a lot of work that had to be done and when it is done it will look like it should look and that won't be impressive because it will look the same as before. However the rot will have been cut out and new wood put back in where needed.

I am saddened to find this condition in the house. I thought it was in better shape when I bought it. Now it is a much better house than when I bought it, sturdy, and functional.

What has been going on?

Well it has been a while since I last posted. Been busy here at the farm. I painted the upstairs bedrooms and floor, well just three of the bedrooms, still got one to go. I had some carpenters come in to replace some windows, hang some doors, reconstruct the stairs to the upstairs bedrooms and fix the door not opening right in the kitchen.

As with most things around here it didn't turn out the way I thought it would. The windows didn't show up the doors were a pain in the rumpus bumpus to get hung the stair project went well and I got a closet under the stairwell. Then everything went to H.E. double hockey sticks when the carpenters got to the kitchen. Turns out the reason the door wouldn't swing correctly was that the sub floor and sill for the kitchen had rotted. Also the structure over the cellar stairs was infected with termites. The door had to come out, the sub floor and sill and structure had to be torn out and all new treated wood put back in to replace the rot. The house had to be jacked up while they maneuvered the beams in place and cut the bad stuff out of the good stuff. They worked their rear ends off.

I also started getting all the old wood out of the cellar and bought a dehumidifier and got it working drying out the cellar. At one time there was a wood stove or wood fired water heater in the cellar and firewood was stored there, just the thing for termites and other bugs to get a start. Also the cellar is damp from water seeping through the walls, that causes other problems with mold and rot.

Looks like we have the situation under control, the cellar has never looked so dry. Still there is half of the cellar without a floor and that could be problematic, so I guess I will spend more money having a cement floor put in to cover the gravel and dirt (sigh).

In the mean time I put the goats up for sale as I wasn't doing anything with them and they were getting out and causing mayhem. I thought it was just a good business like decision and when it came time for them to be picked up by their new owners I even helped load them in the truck. Everything went well untill the truck started down my driveway and my does started calling to me Maaa, Maaa. I must tell you my heart was in my throat and tears were welling up in my eyes. I didn't realize how attached we had become. It was the longest walk that evening from the barn to the house. (sniff)

I also sold the ducks no sniffing there caught 'em and shipped 'em right quick.