My name is Helen...

Yesterday, when I got off work at noon, we went to Harrison and bought chicken wire.  George is going to fix the pen around the chicken house with wire over the pen so we can put the chickens out there and Chicken Hawk cannot get them.

Then, we went window shopping for a new vehicle.  I am going to get an SUV type vehicle so I can haul all the grandkids plus a few more kids if I want to .  My plan is, this summer, we are taking all 4 grandkids on a vacation.  It was after 5 when we got home.  I was tired.

But, I found a dead mouse in the closet.  So, I took everything out of the closet, threw about half of the contents away, washed all my clothes.  Well, I finished washing them today.  But, I took them all out of the closet and put what I did not get washed on the back porch until I could get them washed today..  I threw some of George's old clothes away also, but I did not wash what he had left.  Only my stuff.

Today, I made a run to wally world to buy a shovel before 8 am.  Then, I came home and made George a big breakfast.  Breakfast and shovel are connected.  I had whined until I got him to agree to go to the cemetery today, and cut thorny bushes so I could put stump killer on them before they sprouted even more this spring.  Breakfast and grilled steaks tonight were both bribes.

And, we bought cement yesterday to repair the 5 gravestones that are down.  I say we, but he will do most of that also.  We needed a shovel for that, but forgot to get one yesterday.

We [he] cut brush for about 4 hours today, but he has to sharpen his chain saw chain before we can cut more.

Tomorrow, we have to go back and haul off the brush we cut today.  And, he is going to take the tractor down there so we can raise one of the stones that is down in a hole.  It is a fairly large newer stone that someone placed down there about  20 years ago, so it will be heavy lifting, even with the help of the tractor, so I have asked son to go help us tomorrow.

George will really need son's help tomorrow, because today's helper is pooped out.  Tonight, her name reverted to Fleta, and she is feeling old and stiff.  May just sleep through tomorr

True story...

Man called JR for a job.  JR said can you pass a back ground check and drug test.  Man said, 'How soon would I have to take the test?'

Man did not get the job.

Set in Stone

This is Mary Melissa McNiel Chanucy's grave stone.  Someone in her family spent many hours craving M. Chauncy into the face of the sandstone.  The carver ran out of stone before they came to the end of the name and found it necessary to lay the Y in its side, slightly below the c at the end of the name.

Click on the image and you can see the lazy y.

While killing time on the net yesterday, I found this marker on find a grave.

The inscription says Nancy wife of Joel McNiel.  Nancy died in 1888 and is buried in Walnut Grove Cemetery, Greene County, MO.  Nancy's son Manly Merrit McNiel and his wife Mary Josephine Gaddy McNiel are also buried in Walnut Grove Cemetery.  Mary Josephine is a daughter of our own George Gaddy.

Then, in a tree on Ancestry, I found this photo.

The woman seated in front, is Alma Soboa Chauncy, daughter of Mary Melissa Chauncy.  The descendant also posted this paragraph about Mary, "Mary Melissa McNiel worrked at a Hotel at age 15 where she met Warren Gidean Chauncey. He rode for the pony Express. he was 18. His family had come from Vermont. He join the war with his brothers in 1860. After the war he went back to Mo for her.They had a child and in the 1870 census Her sister Sara was living with her in Mo . Her sister had a child with last name Wallace. My Great GG grandmother was Mary Melissa McNiel.She came to carrol co, Ar. I think she died there.One of her children was Alma Chauncey. I have a picture of her and her family on line.She is not named in the Census as Alma. but a nick name. Aba. Alma died 1918.Her daughter was Abagail Caladona Blake."  I found this image here 

http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/13961834/person/1429389803/photo/f8e5c059-252b-4d4c-a9c9-8b9ac3896f94?src=search

This weekend, we are going back to this cemetery.  George is going to cut down the thorny bushes and I am gong to pile them and put stump killer on the sprouts.  Black Oak Cemetery looks so different from what it appeared two years ago this March when George started cleaning it up.

Before pics, above and below.

   

New Garden

Yesterday we planted potatoes, lettuce, radishes.  And last week I planted spinach.  I know it is too late for spinach, but I had the seed so I planted it.  Today I planted onions and George tilled the rest of the garden again.

And, I planted strawberries the rest of the way across the front of the house.  Last year I planted about half that flower bed in strawberries, and they did so good, I decided to just make it a full strawberry bed.  It is a bit shady on the  upper half, but we will see.

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Rock Crusher Hill...

err, I mean Hole.

JR has been working here some the last few weeks.  He took these with his phone.  It takes really good pics for a phone.

The two pics are from two different perspectives, I think he said.

Yes, Helen, Rock Crusher, between Green Forest and Berryville on 62.

Sunday Morning...

From Rock Quarry to Dry Creek...