It never amazes me that no matter how much time you figure something will take, it always takes more than that. Yesterday was one of those days where every job I tackled yielded two other tasks. However, I did get the washer and dryer hooked up, and we got the shed mostly completed. Anna's mother, Peggy came over and helped with unpacking a lot. I did plumbing and appliances mostly.
At one point, I was crossing over to Grandmother's to borrow a screwdriver for the shed. Belle and Tye became very interested in something, so I approached cautiously. Sure enough, it was a rattlesnake. It was copper colored, not like a timber rattler, at least 4 feet long, and as fat as my closed fist. It was also eating a squirell. It had managed to get the head down, but everything else was still sticking out. Now, this is evolution at work. Any snake that gets caught in the open with it's mouth full is not going to last long. I ran back, got Anna and Peggy, then Grandmother, and we cut it's head and rattles off with a brush knife. Took some video and pictures too. We have lived in town for three days and killed two poisonous animals. Anna found a black widow roaming around in the pasture on Sunday. Welcome to the country!
Me and Scout
12 October 2010
12 October 2010, 0937, Tuesday, Home Patch
Tim decided to stay another night, and he suggested that we actually go for a ride. Boxes are piled everywhere, bookcases are in the middle of the living room floor, the pipes are leaking, and that’s the list that doesn’t include the ranch chores. So, I thought it was a great idea and we went for a ride. First we had to get fixin’ to ride. Now, that means that we had to go find the horses. I will talk about the fence issues later. We had a nice ride. We went through the Mineral Box Field and talked about how I want to use that as a trap for the wild horses. We tried pushing through the woods between the Mineral Box Field 2 and Bobcat Woods, but didn’t have much luck. We had to even dismount at one point. In the Savanna, we came upon the horses. Since we were just riding for fun, we decided just this once, to run the horses, Gus McCrae style. When they turned slightly toward the house, we made a faint-hearted attempt to take them that way, but they turned on us. The trap will be the way to go.
I know that anybody who reads this blog that is not related to me won’t know what a Mineral Box Field is, but I’ll go into that later. I will explain what I mean by a trap. All I’m talking about is a series of pastures, decreasing in size and leading up to a point where stock can be driven to the pens. The Mineral Box Field has traditionally been part of our horse trap.
I am going to have to start riding Sarge pretty soon. He followed us for awhile, but broke off to go to Grandmother’s to try and get some more food. When we went through the Mineral Box Field, he must have lost us, but saw us again in the Savanna. He ran up to us like he was a puppy dog and we had just gotten home.
Nothing interesting happened the rest of the day. We took Tim home and got some more stuff out of the house. Met with the realtor and talked prices.
11 October 2010, 0743, Monday, Home Patch
Thursday, I did not do much other than get organized and catch up on email. Friday, Anna and I spent packing. We did not get done, but accomplished a lot. We called it quits around 2300 after a trip to Walmart for boxes. We needed to be some rested when the big day came.
We got up early on Saturday, started packing, and then went to pick up the truck. We had great help during the day from Melissa, Tim, Scott and Steven. We got word that there was to be a showing at 1530. So, we started scrambling in the afternoon to make things at least slightly presentable. Most of our stuff got packed, loaded, and moved. We arrived around 1730 on Saturday, and proceeded to unload. Tim and Melissa came with us and we are very thankful for their help. Grandmother came over and the women began unloading, and I mean unloading. They didn’t shy away from anything heavy, other than the fridge. The reason they did this is because Tim and I were busy working on the septic system. We finally got it hooked up around 2040 and then proceeded to unload the rest of the stuff. We cleared paths for us to get to the bathroom, (which worked!) and then went to bed.
We got up pretty early the next day and had a lot of frustration. I won’t go into all of it, but many of the things I tried to do just wouldn’t do. We had three showings in two days, and none of those worked out. I spent three hours on fixing the ice dispenser on the refrigerator door and still could not hook it up. We tried to build the shed and did not have all of the pieces. It was a rough day. However, we did our best to make the most of it. Melissa had left that morning. Anna made a fantastic breakfast on the new stove. Okay, that’s one thing that went pretty trouble free, that is, installing the stove. It occurs to me, that when you have some frustration you (or rather, I) tend to forget about what has gone right. In any event, we went to town to turn in our moving truck and had a nice dinner with Tim, who decided to stay another night, because he loves to be worked like a Roman galley slave.
The important thing is that we are in! We have our stuff in Batson, we are living, cooking, working out of (some), and going to the bathroom in our new home. The place in Clear Lake now is just a financial responsibility to bear. Soon it will be a memory. My memories of it will be good. My first house. The place where I had my own dedicated library. The place where I brought home my bride. It was a nice house and Anna made it even nicer. I’ll remember it fondly, and while we live in a mobile home, I may even miss it some, but for now, I JUST WANT TO SELL IT!!!
06 October 2010
06 October 2010, 1756, Wednesday, Clear Lake
On Monday, I was on the way to feed the horses, and meet Dad to mow the road, but got a sub call for West Hardin. I had 7th and 8th grade English classes. No problems. Anna pulled out a lot of the old fence in the back yard; Grandmother helped her. After work, I went to Kountze to pick up the CD for their sub training and registered to vote in Hardin County. When I got back, I was about to burn, but Grandmother came over and said there was a ban in effect. She also noticed a leak.
It turns out we had two leaks. A small one at a t-junction. I had to rip open the insulation to find it. There is also a leak from the drain for the master shower. That one was bad, but, of course does not affect our water bill. We decided to go to get supplies to fix everything the next morning. Dad came by that evening on his way in. I thought he had left already, but he had had lots of trouble with the baler. I should have checked on him when I got in. More should’ve’s. Anyway, he was leaving on Tuesday morning.
Tuesday morning, we rolled out around 0900 and saw Dad pulling out at the same time. Our simple trip to get plumbing repair supplies took all morning, but we had fun. We went to Potetz Lumber and got what we needed (I thought). Then we found a great donut and taco shop. We went to TSC and got some gloves and then to Wal-Mart. When we got back, I realized that I had indeed gotten the wrong size pipes. So, I will get the right stuff down here and replace it later. It’s not a heavy leak, so if we don’t run the water recklessly, we’ll be fine. I also tried to hook up the septic offshoot pipes, but still need some different stuff for that. So, I have my work cut out for me next time we come.
Which, will be interesting, because we decided to go ahead and move on Saturday. We put out an invite for help, but we will be okay without it. I may have to do some plumbing when I get there.
God showed his provision today. Last night, on the way home, we noticed a pile of something on the street. I joked that maybe it was mobile home skirting. So, on the way to the store today, I looked at it more closely. It was a shed! I knocked on the guy’s door and he was sure enough giving it away. Some of the doors are busted so I will have to jury rig it, but it will be great for until I can build a proper wooden shed. Thank you, God!
02 October 2010
02 October 2010, 2306, Saturday, Home Patch
Up around 0700 and over to the white house (Grandmother’s) for breakfast. Nathan, Duncan, and I started on replacing the door to Grandmother’s laundry room when the AC guy pulled up. The condenser outside was not deactivating when the compressor went off. It turns out it was just our install of the new thermostat. However, we discovered that the heating elements need to be replaced. It will cost some money to order them, but I will do it myself, which will save some money.
After dinner, we ended up taking an extended nap. Nathan and Duncan came over after their nap and we went to hook up the mower to the tractor. The plan was that they would go mow a path from the old hay field to the new hay field so the guy that is helping Dad do hay would know where to go. In any event, by the time we got the mower hooked up, it was too late to do anything else, so they came back and mowed around the brush pile in the front. Nathan did a good job, mowing up to the front of the house, so we have kind of a yard. I repaired the crossover ducting that had been damaged by Tye. I decided not to fence it off since it was so easy to fix.
I pulled some bigger brush and logs over to our burn pile while Nathan bunched it up nicely. We will burn tomorrow. After supper everyone came over to our place for games. It was a nice night.
01 October 2010
01 October 2010, 2330, Friday, Home Patch
Good day subbing today for an ag class in Daisetta. I actually could help out and offer information at times. One class was getting a little bit of an attitude, but we worked through it.
I got frustrated and worried about money again today. I hate getting like that because it insults God.
Not much else happening. The cousins from Austin are here and we visited with them this evening. I went to Clear Lake, loaded up some more stuff, and picked up Anna. The stars were nice tonight. Nothing like West Texas, but when there is no moon and the lights are out, you can really see a lot of stars. We had a nice walk from our place to Grandmother’s where everyone is staying. I don’t like the road noise from the highway, but everything else is pretty secluded.
Will do some more house work and some ranching tomorrow.
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