The Hired Help

The microwave started shooting sparks last week.  This is a  big deal because it is an above the stove wave + vent hood.  Brother came over and put it up a couple or three years ago, and today he returned to put in the replacement.  This one was easier because George purposely bought the same brand hoping the brackets already in place would fit.  They did.  It took Gilbert less than an hour to get the new one in place.  Hannah is really grateful because we let her cook with the microwave, but not on the cook stove.  She is miss independent.

Now, he has moved on to Mama's house, putting new facing around the front 'picture' window.  George is up there helping him.  

I cooked him a ham, but he did not eat, so I am way ahead of the game today.  I cleaned house yesterday, so today I plan on wasting time reading, unless I decide to go cut grass over the dead people.

This morning I got up around 4 and put the ham in the oven.  Then just before 5, I set out on my Saturday walk.  When I got to Helen's, she was just leaving for Huston.  I walked over to farm 2 at the top of Morris hill.  At sunup, I was coming down Morris hill toward's Lois' house.  I cut across Dry Creek and was home by 7:30.  I am counting that as 6 miles, but I think it is more like 5 and a half.  I am giving myself and extra half mile for rough terrain. 

Kids start school Monday.  Hannah and I went to JCP and bought her a few new outfits yesterday.  Maybe we will have a fashion show later and post pics.  Aunt Helen has painted her nails and I am staying late in the morning to fix her hair.  They want to ride the bus, but she wants her hair braided for the first day.  They are both excited about starting school, even the boy.

Miles to go

540 to get to Fredericksburg by Christmas.  I have logged 710 miles walked this year and it is 1250 miles from here to Fredericksburg by way of Perryville, Kentucky.  I passed Perryville about 3 weeks ago without even knowing I was there.

It has really been to hot to walk, but it is starting to cool off.  I walked 5 miles this evening while George took the kids swimming.

School starts next Monday.  Third Grade, yeah.  Me, George and Hannah are ready for school to start.  Robert is not.  Open house is Thursday night.

Greg is in Tennessee going to welding school for a couple of weeks. I am not sure if it is 2 weeks or 3.  It will be good that the weather should be a little cooler when he gets back.  Welding in 90 degree weather is not fun.

We still have all the goats.  We are planing on selling about half of them in September.  One of the babies broke a leg somehow last month, but it healed up all by itself. You can't even tell which leg was broken now.

My new years resolutions are all forgotten.

Our Boy is half way around the world plus 2

Lane landed in Japan, almost exactly half way round the world from Arkansas, sometime Friday or Saturday, depending on which side of the Pacific you were standing on.

Okinawa, Japan is 14 hours ahead of Arkansas

11:06 AM Wednesday, in Arkansas is

1:06 AM Thursday, in Okinawa Prefecture, Japan

George has been talking to him on facebook. I want to ask him what tomorrow will bring.  He is already there, tomorrow that is.

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Hot, Hot, Hot

It is so hot I am not even trying to walk tonight.  Last week I walked 26 miles total, but 14 of that was on Sat and Sun, early in the morning.  I think today was the  hottest day we have.

George took the kids to the community pool at BRV this evening.  I hope they appreciate him doing that.  I appreciate it because  he is going to grab burgers on the way home so I do not have to cook.  I had a chicken sandwich with charity chicken I brought home from work.  I had slices of  Helen's tomato with it.  The tomato was delicious.

Saturday we bought material for curtains for Hannah at the discount material place Helen found with hints from Ruth at Church.  They are very pretty and only cost $3 total.  And, Aunt Helen made them so it was really easy.

One of Our Own

I wrote this poem in 2004 on the death of the only solider that I knew personally to die in the  Iraq war.  I worked with Sgt. Collier on night shift here at the plant.  I am reposting in memory of Staff Sgt. David Wyatt of Russellville, remembered by our Erin.

 

                           One of Our Own

 

At first the news is distant and vague, like many others…

-          Another soldier gone

-          Dead in a far off land

But to us, this one is different,

                A familiar face on the news

-          He is a Local Boy

-          One of Our Own…

 

Another citizen soldier sent off long ago, with best wishes and Prayers...

-          to that distant place

-          never ever to return

But to us, this one is different from the others

                Not a stranger from another town

-          He is a Local Boy

-          One of Our Own…

 

But in our hearts we know…

To Some One, Some Place

Each and Every One

-          Is a Local Boy

-          One of Our Own…

 

In memory of our own, Sgt. Russell L. Collier

killed in Taji, Iraq October 3, 2004.

 

 

October 5, 2004

Fleta Aday

 

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Catching UP

Having not posted all week, I am even slower than Helen.

 

We got back from vacation in good order Monday night around 10.  We stopped in Siloam and had KFC with the kids daddy.  It had been a month since he had seen them, being in school for two weeks in LR prior to our vacation.  Next vacation we are eating more at KFC and less at hamburger joints.  I do not care if I never have another fast burger.

 

It has been really hot. I walked 4 miles to the red barn on Wed, Thur and Friday starting about 6:30 in the evening.  Four miles is the most I can do in the hot evening, and at that I cannot make the mile in 20 minutes I was before July.  Saturday and Sunday, I went at 6 or so in the morning and got in 6 miles each day.

 

Helen’s white bloom that she says smells like lilac is poison sumac.  I thought that was what it was, but did not remember the white bloom.  After the white bloom dries, the blooms turn red / brown as in the other undoubtedly more familiar photo.

 

We went yesterday and bought lumber for George to start on our goat shed.  I had in mind a 10X20 or so slanted roof building.  George is planning a 20X40  gable roofed building.  He is building it so that is what we are going with, for now at least.  We will have a goat mansion, if he gets it completed.

 

I went back to work Thursday.  It has not been as bad as I thought it might be with 2 weeks of work piled up, probably because I just sit down beside the piles and do something that interests me.

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The End