We've been a long time gone, I know! In reverse this time. Long time gone from the road.
We came home for Thanksgiving with the sincere intention of staying home only a week and a half and no longer!
But the truck had other ideas. I'll update you in my next post, which I promise you will be soon. I have been "meaning to" post for about a week and a half now, but between holidays and a project we got tied up in, I haven't made it yet.
This is the first time I've sat down to the computer in about two and a half weeks and that was only because I realized I had a bill that needed paid. And since I was on I decided to drop you a quick note to let you know I'm still here.
We will, God willing, be back on the road after New Years. But you will get an update before that. There's been lots going on around here!
And then we will resume our traveling posts!
Thanks for your patience.
Saturday, December 28, 2013
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Maintenance
It's never ending. There are a lot of things that go on at home, while your not there, that you have to take care of when you do get there.
For instance, the resident spiders didn't get my memo that Halloween was over, and so they kept decorating for me. I have had what felt like 3000 spider webs to take down and clean up, along with the little bug carcasses they had caught.
About 2 1/2 months worth of dust to wipe off the furniture and floors. You wouldn't think an unlived in house would get so dusty. But there were monster dust bunnies on the floor under the bed. No wonder we were so sniffly the first couple of mornings!
We've had the annual infestation of lady bugs and, unfortunately, stink bugs, that come with each fall. Why do they move indoors? I vacuumed up a number of them till they were not so noticeable. And now I just use a Kleenex to get the stink bugs. The lady bugs....well....I'm at the kitchen table and there are currently three or four I can spot on the ceiling. Aren't they supposed to be good luck or something? Still waiting for that luck to show up. ;)
Leaves to sweep off the front walk, bird feeders that have stood empty for weeks had to be refilled, branches to pick up from the yard, and about a million burrs to pull out of neglected manes.
I could have shot him. He's lucky I love him so much!
And just when you think your all done and caught up, you have a morning event like today. Malcolm's jacket was all dirty from yesterday so he wanted his vest from the front closet. It's a little closet in the front living room corner where I keep our nicer coats and things like that that we never use, hanging up so they won't be wrinkled in case we ever do want to wear them.
I retrieved said vest, carried it out to Malcolm, and as I handed it too him, something looked odd.
So I returned to the closet, threw open the door, and rifled through the coats to discover that....
they were all covered in mold!
So I've been spot cleaning coats this morning, and I guess that closet door will have to remain open, which will not be very pretty.
Our line of work requires that our house stand empty for extended periods. So basically, in some respects, its like living in a vacant house, and dealing with the problems that come with it. Mold probably isn't helping our allergies! Another thing for me to keep my eyes open for.
On the bright side, we are officially 1 year 1 month residents....and still no MICE! I have caught 2 in the course of the past year. But to me that's like standard house quota. A small miracle in an almost 100 year old farmhouse! I'm beyond thrilled! I'll deal with the mold! Just keep the mice away!!!! I've had my fill of houses with chronic mouse issues! It's SO NICE to come home and NOT have to clean up their messes EVERY TIME we're home! Or feel my skin crawl wondering what they have been walking on and fouling!
Malcolm's dirty jacket: It was filthy and musty smelling because yesterday he and Dad and a couple of hired guys spent there day here...
The family came to our house for Thanskgiving last week. It was so nice and relaxing to not have to go somewhere, and to have our house full of family! We took some family pictures while we were all here. And that, as I'm sure you know, is always good for some laughs. But we did end up with quite a few good ones, and a great one of all of us together! Tripods and camera's with self timers are really handy!
We have a new farm critter! Last year we had a black cat that was always being seen off on the fringes. But he'd scamper away the minute he saw us. We called him "Spook" because he was so easily spooked. We haven't seen Spook in several months. When we got home last week, we both noticed a gray cat slinking around in barns and fields. He wouldn't run when he saw us, but he wasn't interested in having us near either. We started referring to him as "Slink." I tried to visit one morning and he sat and watched me till he decided I was too close, at which point he trotted off into the woods.
Well the next morning I was out at the corrals feeding horses and heard a cat meowing. I looked up and at the far side of the corral, here came Slink, at a quick trot, meowing all the way, directly up to my feet, where he proceeded to use my leg as a stretching post. I don't know what all the slinking was about! Maybe he just needed time to decide if he approved of us or not. Because he really wanted to be loved on that morning!
He sends mixed messages though, because he loves your scratching him and then he'll suddenly turn and try to bite. Just a light bite, but still. That was the only morning we've been graced with his attention. I've seen him a couple more times but there was noisy equipment being used and he didn't care for it and left. I hope he'll stick around. We enjoy having a farm cat. I just hope he'll stick to mice and leave my song birds alone.
The girls are super ultra happy to be home. They raced in the door the first night we were here, and within 3 minutes ( no exaggeration) Ella had found her favorite "froggy" and was working the squeaker over. She loves that toy!
We've kept a fire going since we got home. It helps keep the chill out and supplements the heating system. Plus it's just nice to sit by, which is pretty much what the girls do...all...day....long!
After Thanksgiving, I put up a few Christmas decorations. My heart really wasn't in it, but I know when I come home again for Christmas, I'll enjoy having them up. So I put up my Christmas village that hasn't been out in years and years...
...and I put the nativity up on the mantel, so we can enjoy it and be reminded daily of what Christmas is really about...
...and I put up my new pencil tree that I bought at Sears. I've wanted a skinny tree for several years now, to use for my collection of bird ornaments. And when we were at Sears shopping for a new appliance, I saw this one and LOVED it! I've been waiting for the perfect one, and this was it. So it's in it's corner now and decorated and it's perfect! A nice tree that doesn't dominate the room.
At Sears shopping for an appliance? For a couple years now I've been doing battle with this fridge we have had since our wedding. It's been awesome! Eleven years of great to decent service and that even after standing in a foot of water during our flood a few months after our wedding! Kenmore makes a good product! What can I say?
But the last couple years of use, it's gotten temperamental. I'll come home and things in the freezer have obviously thawed and refrozen. Or I'll wake up one morning and the fridge part will be 50 degrees inside, and the next morning my produce will be frosty frozen. And I'm tired of the battle, and I got mad about it and decided it was time to replace it. Quite by accident, it happened on the brink of all the Black Friday sales! And so I learned a lesson! If your going to replace big dollar items, hold off till Thanksgiving! The sales were excellent!
My plans to paint.....have been put on hold again. Just not feeling like bothering with it right now. Of course we'll be here a few more days. So I might get started. Who knows? If not, then maybe over Christmas break. Right now it just feels like a bigger job than I want to tackle. Instead I've been washing floors on my hands and knees because I can't figure out any other way to clean 100 year old wood floors without risking tearing splinters out of them with a mop, or leaving a million strings hanging in them. Ideas? Because my knees would appreciate another alternative!
It was so cold when we first got home! It snowed one day, flurries all day long though they didn't stay on the ground. And the day we got home was cold and drizzly. We came home all icy.
But it has warmed up gradually. It's soggy this week, but not freezing, which is kind of nice. Good weather for staying indoors by the fire, puttering around the house.
Which is what I'm going to go do now.
Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
For instance, the resident spiders didn't get my memo that Halloween was over, and so they kept decorating for me. I have had what felt like 3000 spider webs to take down and clean up, along with the little bug carcasses they had caught.
About 2 1/2 months worth of dust to wipe off the furniture and floors. You wouldn't think an unlived in house would get so dusty. But there were monster dust bunnies on the floor under the bed. No wonder we were so sniffly the first couple of mornings!
We've had the annual infestation of lady bugs and, unfortunately, stink bugs, that come with each fall. Why do they move indoors? I vacuumed up a number of them till they were not so noticeable. And now I just use a Kleenex to get the stink bugs. The lady bugs....well....I'm at the kitchen table and there are currently three or four I can spot on the ceiling. Aren't they supposed to be good luck or something? Still waiting for that luck to show up. ;)
Leaves to sweep off the front walk, bird feeders that have stood empty for weeks had to be refilled, branches to pick up from the yard, and about a million burrs to pull out of neglected manes.
I could have shot him. He's lucky I love him so much!
 |
| My friend Shirley suggested Armor All, and my sweet husband snuck out and took care of this problem while I was away from the house, texting me a picture of a sleek maned pony later in the afternoon. I love them both, the man and the horse! |
And just when you think your all done and caught up, you have a morning event like today. Malcolm's jacket was all dirty from yesterday so he wanted his vest from the front closet. It's a little closet in the front living room corner where I keep our nicer coats and things like that that we never use, hanging up so they won't be wrinkled in case we ever do want to wear them.
I retrieved said vest, carried it out to Malcolm, and as I handed it too him, something looked odd.
they were all covered in mold!
Our line of work requires that our house stand empty for extended periods. So basically, in some respects, its like living in a vacant house, and dealing with the problems that come with it. Mold probably isn't helping our allergies! Another thing for me to keep my eyes open for.
On the bright side, we are officially 1 year 1 month residents....and still no MICE! I have caught 2 in the course of the past year. But to me that's like standard house quota. A small miracle in an almost 100 year old farmhouse! I'm beyond thrilled! I'll deal with the mold! Just keep the mice away!!!! I've had my fill of houses with chronic mouse issues! It's SO NICE to come home and NOT have to clean up their messes EVERY TIME we're home! Or feel my skin crawl wondering what they have been walking on and fouling!
Malcolm's dirty jacket: It was filthy and musty smelling because yesterday he and Dad and a couple of hired guys spent there day here...
For as long as I can remember, my parents have wanted to buy an old log cabin and put it in the woods by their house. And finally, after years of dreaming, Dad found this 100+ year old log cabin near Lynchburg, TN, and bought it, and the guys went up yesterday to disassemble it...
...and load it on our flatbed trailer and bring it home for reassembly (later in the Spring).
And Malcolm's jacket was filthy from crawling around underneath the floor and just from general cabin disassembly work. But it's in the washer now, and the cabin is going to be lots of fun to play in!The family came to our house for Thanskgiving last week. It was so nice and relaxing to not have to go somewhere, and to have our house full of family! We took some family pictures while we were all here. And that, as I'm sure you know, is always good for some laughs. But we did end up with quite a few good ones, and a great one of all of us together! Tripods and camera's with self timers are really handy!
We brought Fancy home this past weekend. She's been at a friends house since shortly after her foal was born. I didn't want her and the baby home alone in case problems arose, so a close family friend offered to "babysit" for me. They got so attached that I was almost worried I wasn't going to get my horses back! In the end I did get to have Fancy back. But they couldn't let the baby go. So they bought him from my and named him Montana, since that's where he started his life journey. They hadn't quite weaned him, so it was a bit of a traumatic separation. The first morning he got turned out, he apparently went running around the barn looking for Mom. Hopefully he's settled in with his other friends there by now. For Fancy's part, I only heard her calling to him a few times during the first night. Since then she's been happily munching hay and laying her ears back at Sky. She thinks he's a pest. And she's pretty much right. But I love him.
We have a new farm critter! Last year we had a black cat that was always being seen off on the fringes. But he'd scamper away the minute he saw us. We called him "Spook" because he was so easily spooked. We haven't seen Spook in several months. When we got home last week, we both noticed a gray cat slinking around in barns and fields. He wouldn't run when he saw us, but he wasn't interested in having us near either. We started referring to him as "Slink." I tried to visit one morning and he sat and watched me till he decided I was too close, at which point he trotted off into the woods.
Well the next morning I was out at the corrals feeding horses and heard a cat meowing. I looked up and at the far side of the corral, here came Slink, at a quick trot, meowing all the way, directly up to my feet, where he proceeded to use my leg as a stretching post. I don't know what all the slinking was about! Maybe he just needed time to decide if he approved of us or not. Because he really wanted to be loved on that morning!
The girls are super ultra happy to be home. They raced in the door the first night we were here, and within 3 minutes ( no exaggeration) Ella had found her favorite "froggy" and was working the squeaker over. She loves that toy!
But the last couple years of use, it's gotten temperamental. I'll come home and things in the freezer have obviously thawed and refrozen. Or I'll wake up one morning and the fridge part will be 50 degrees inside, and the next morning my produce will be frosty frozen. And I'm tired of the battle, and I got mad about it and decided it was time to replace it. Quite by accident, it happened on the brink of all the Black Friday sales! And so I learned a lesson! If your going to replace big dollar items, hold off till Thanksgiving! The sales were excellent!
It was so cold when we first got home! It snowed one day, flurries all day long though they didn't stay on the ground. And the day we got home was cold and drizzly. We came home all icy.
Which is what I'm going to go do now.
Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Heading Home
We are on our way home. One more stop, to deliver in Arkansas on Monday, and then we will high tail it for home.
We have not been in the southeast, much less home, since September 23. That's when we left the house for this last round on the road. It's been too long!
There was not an intent to stay out this long, but one thing led to another and it just happened this way. We had expected to stay out for our usual 5 weeks, and then head back in. But about three weeks into our working, we got a BIG and unpleasant surprise.
We got to buy a new transmission, to the tune of $9200.00.
Thankfully the preceding three weeks had been amazingly profitable. And thankfully the following weeks have been as well. But it did feel a bit like a sucker punch to the gut. It's been one of those things we knew was coming. But you kind of always hope it will wait till tomorrow and not come at you today. You know what I mean?
Anyway, given that, and a few other circumstances and goals, we decided to stick it out till Thanksgiving. In some ways it's been easier than I expected, but it's certainly been longer than I ever want to stay out again.
Nothing else really note worthy has happened. At least nothing that stands out in my mind worth mentioning. Probably because we've just about run our wheels off, barely having time to breath the entire 9 weeks! It's been awesome (and tiring), and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I'd run this hard in a heartbeat. NOT necessarily for this long though. I've loved staying busy though. It makes time go by faster and your too tired to think much about what you'd rather be doing.
We should be home by Monday night, and plan to stay a week or so. Then we'll be back out for a couple weeks of work before Christmas.
We've got some work to do at home. The truck and trailer need some attention, the house probably needs a major dusting, if not more. I hope to get my kitchen painted, something I've wanted to do for some time now. Our family is coming to our house for Thanksgiving dinner, so that will be fun. I enjoy having everyone over.
And then there will be the usual. Relaxing in front of our fire (if it's cool enough), cooking, giving the girls a very long over due bath, and, of course, time with the horses. Just wait till you see how much Midas, our colt, has grown! We'll be bringing Fancy home this next week and Midas will be staying with his new owners.
That's about all I have to share right now, so I'm going to stop writing and put of a few of my pictures from this week. Next post will be from my kitchen table, probably after Thanksgiving sometime.
CAN'T WAIT!!!!
We have not been in the southeast, much less home, since September 23. That's when we left the house for this last round on the road. It's been too long!
There was not an intent to stay out this long, but one thing led to another and it just happened this way. We had expected to stay out for our usual 5 weeks, and then head back in. But about three weeks into our working, we got a BIG and unpleasant surprise.
We got to buy a new transmission, to the tune of $9200.00.
Thankfully the preceding three weeks had been amazingly profitable. And thankfully the following weeks have been as well. But it did feel a bit like a sucker punch to the gut. It's been one of those things we knew was coming. But you kind of always hope it will wait till tomorrow and not come at you today. You know what I mean?
Anyway, given that, and a few other circumstances and goals, we decided to stick it out till Thanksgiving. In some ways it's been easier than I expected, but it's certainly been longer than I ever want to stay out again.
Nothing else really note worthy has happened. At least nothing that stands out in my mind worth mentioning. Probably because we've just about run our wheels off, barely having time to breath the entire 9 weeks! It's been awesome (and tiring), and I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I'd run this hard in a heartbeat. NOT necessarily for this long though. I've loved staying busy though. It makes time go by faster and your too tired to think much about what you'd rather be doing.
We should be home by Monday night, and plan to stay a week or so. Then we'll be back out for a couple weeks of work before Christmas.
We've got some work to do at home. The truck and trailer need some attention, the house probably needs a major dusting, if not more. I hope to get my kitchen painted, something I've wanted to do for some time now. Our family is coming to our house for Thanksgiving dinner, so that will be fun. I enjoy having everyone over.
And then there will be the usual. Relaxing in front of our fire (if it's cool enough), cooking, giving the girls a very long over due bath, and, of course, time with the horses. Just wait till you see how much Midas, our colt, has grown! We'll be bringing Fancy home this next week and Midas will be staying with his new owners.
That's about all I have to share right now, so I'm going to stop writing and put of a few of my pictures from this week. Next post will be from my kitchen table, probably after Thanksgiving sometime.
CAN'T WAIT!!!!
last Saturday coming across Lookout Pass in Idaho
heading west on I-80 towards Reno on Tuesday
Thursday evening in southern Idaho about 40 miles from the Utah state line (I-84)
another shot from Tuesday in Nevada on I-80
Wednesday evening heading back east on I-80 in Nevada
Our sweet neighbor sent us this picture a couple weeks ago. She said she thought we'd like to see our house with the fall colors before they were gone. We are still amazed at how blessed we are to have such great neighbors, all the way around!
**when I was blogging before, I could choose the size of my pictures and add captions to them by clicking on them, and a menu would pop up. Has that changed? I don't seem to have any options with the pictures now. What am I missing?
Saturday, November 16, 2013
Explanations
Welcome! If your here it's because you've asked to be. Which also means your either a friend, family member, or follower of my former blog. Being as such, I owe you explanations.
First, why a new blog and why private. The answer is more complicated than I want to get into here and now. Some of you will "get it" without explanation. The rest of you simply, hopefully, can understand a desire for privacy. To some degrees I like having our experiences open to the public because it's interesting to people and we like sharing and educating the world about life as truckers. But sometimes you reach a point in life where you just need to withdraw a little bit and surround yourself with safe people you can depend on and trust. I'm at that point right now.
I tapered off on blogging because I lost the motivation to blog. And also because there was so much drama and trauma going on, and I just couldn't write without letting some of the negativity leach it's way into my writing. And being as my beloved blog, Between the Fenceposts, was open to the public and read by participants in the drama and trauma....well it was just further motivation to withdraw and close up shop. I kept trying to get back into it, but I never could make myself do it. And it's something that's supposed to be enjoyable for me. I decided if I was having to force myself to blog, then it had lost it's purpose and I didn't need to be blogging.
I've been Facebooking. And loving it. I think it feeds my lifelong attraction to instant gratification. Kind of like I never liked practicing piano. I just wanted to sit down and play like a pro.
Well a few weeks ago I got frustrated with myself and my seeming inability to be concise and not wordy on my Facebook status updates and comments. I try so hard to keep it short, but I can't! And Facebook doesn't work well with wordy, rambling status updates. So I spent some late night driving time pondering how to learn to say what I want to say in shorter phrases, and why do I get so wordy anyway? And I realized this...
I'm a writer and writers use words!
I miss writing! I miss being able to use as many and whatever words I want to use!
And so I need to try to blog again.
I'm going to give this a try. The motivation still ebbs and flows. These inspirations to start a new blog happened a couple weeks ago and I'm just not getting around to doing it, because the motivation left me again. I can't promise that I'll be as thorough of a blogger as I used to be. I'd like to think I will be, but we have to wait and see what happens.
I'm glad you stuck with me through my lengthy silence and I hope I don't let you down here. But like I said, we will see.
About the name:
I'm not good at naming things! It's so hard! Take my last blog, Between the Fenceposts, for instance. I loved the name! It had absolutely NOTHING to do with what I was writing about. I'm not sure it had anything to do with anything!
I had to ask for help on this one. I wanted it to reflect what I'd be writing about: trucking, my horses, what I'm doing while I'm home. And I got some really nice suggestions. One of my favorites was Tails and Trails, but when I went to create my new blog, that was apparently already taken. The other one I really liked was Tales of the Flying Lady. It was Malcolm's creation.
Malcolm's blog name suggestion was catchy and original. Two things that appealed to me. I'm still not sure how to make it relate to when I write about being home and the horses, but I liked it enough to decide to work around that kink.
The "look" of the blog is still in development. It works for now. It's not really a great reflection of me, which I think the blog look should be. But neutral is a good look for the beginning stages of a new blog. And I do like gray.
So I think that about wraps up the explanations. At least for now.
My blogging may not be as frequent as it was in years past, but probably it will be just as wordy. ;) And now that I've finally learned how to work with this Windows 8, I'll be able to include pictures without too much of a headache and that will help me stay motivated. Pictures are a big part of my blogging and Windows 8 was such a pain about how it wanted me to work with pictures...well I've come to terms with it, and had a techy person show me some stuff, and now that it's not an out right battle to post pictures I think that will help my motivation some.
Thanks for joining me here at the new location. I'll be back around in a bit to visit, but I want to give it a few days to let everyone find where I am now and get you all "invited" to join the blog.
This feels good. I hope it lasts.
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