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Most of the smaller images have larger versions linked
to them. :: WEATHER July was pretty wet around here. We had about of week of rain everyday. We walked down the gravel road north of our property after one of the earlier rainstorms to see the creek. The road, bridge and the bottomland was all under water. It probably was impassable for at least the entire day. It was a hot and humid day. Buster and Sammy had a nice swim. On July 26 we decided to take a break and go to Macon for the "Flywheel Reunion". The fairgrounds were sodden and many activities had been cancelled. I made the mistake of wearing white tennies. I should have worn my rubber boots. We had to drive through 5" of water on the major highway on the way home. We heard there had been 10" of rain in 24 hrs. After the rains, the temperatures were in the 80's. All the water evaporating from the ground made it pretty humid. Sweat starts pouring down every part of your body after only a couple minutes work outside. Danny gets the worst of it since he has to be out on the blacktop all day for his job. I hide in the house during the afternoons. We had to run the air conditioning constantly for about a week. Lately it has been milder. It is still in the low 80s but cools down at night and not very humid. We have been able to get by without running the air conditioner. I love the sky here. There are almost always big puffy clouds. In the morning and evening everything gets a glorious glow that looks like orange sherbert and just makes me giddy. It is impossible to capture with the camera. We've had quite a few exciting thunderstorms this Spring or Summer but the worst seems to go North or South of us. Anytime there was a tornado watch on the radio, I would run around the house trying to remember what we are supposed to do. Danny just tells me to wait. He says when there is something to worry about, we'll know it. :: SHOP Danny planned out the walls in 12' sections to make it easier for us to raise ourselves. It worked out quite well. We used 6" walls 24" o..c. studs on the shop side and 4" walls 16" o.c. for the garage. The trusses for the roof arrived on May 8. We devised a way for the two of us to wrangled them up on the walls and had the trusses in place by May 18. Because we were using OSB and were getting a lot of rain, we didn't want to sheath the exterior walls until the roof was sheathed, so we put up some temporary sheets and bracing and went to work on getting the roof on. We debated doing open eaves or soffits and went with open eaves. I wanted to make it a little easier on myself and put the primer and first coat of paint on the eave tails, blocking, fascia and underside of the roof sheathing before we put it up. Even with a rented nail gun it still took longer than we thought it would to shingle the roof. We had to contend with some very blustery days so we didn't want to put on the roof paper unless we could get it covered that day. We finally completed the ridge vent on June 18 and began working on the sheathing and siding. It was a relief to get the building sheathed and wrapped although rain was still coming in the garage and man doors. We chose vinyl siding for ease and economy. It is very common in Missouri. This is the first time either has put up vinyl siding. We learned a lot. It went up fairly easily. The biggest issue we had was the twisted corner posts trim. All in all, we are pleased with the appearance. Because we had moved the table saw, chop saw and other tools into the building, I was very anxious to get the building closed up to keep out the weather, critters and prying eyes. Before we were able to install the garage doors, we needed to put up some of the sheetrock on the front of the building and part of the ceiling. The pre-hung door and vinyl window dropped right in but Danny spent awhile hanging the door for the shop. We used a steel door that we found in the barn. It needed to be repainted but was in good shape otherwise. Now that the exterior is done, we concentrate on the inside. We previously had an electrician come and trench for electrical to the shop and barn and we wired the shop with 220 and 110. We got a huge stack of insulation and sheetrock delivered on July 27th. After insulating all the exterior walls we begin to sheetrock. Once the ceiling was done we ran down to Lowes (a 90 mile round trip) for the insulation blower. It gets 8" of blown-in insulation for an R value of 30. We started early but by 12 it wasn't done and it was getting hot up there. I started getting woozy so Danny finished up. It is close to done. We still need to finish topping and taping and then paint. Danny will have 3 interior doors and cabinets to build and install. That will take the most time. We will get a wood stove that Danny will have to stoke all winter to keep it warm. We haven't gotten a cooling system yet. :: WORK I spend my days doing a few jobs here and there for former clients in California. I have picked up one project here that I can do at home. It is tracing satellite maps of golf courses for a software company in K.C. It is piecework that is based on $11/hr. Unfortunately, that doesn't take into account any administration time so it seems like I am only making like $5/hr to do it. But it is something to do while I look for other work, plus it will end soon. Then I try to keep up with the chores and yardwork around here. I can't imagine if we actually had to do real farm work too. When would i have time to keep up with my TV watching. Mowing is BIG in Missouri. Everyone who is anyone has a riding mower. I spent 4-1/2 hours last week mowing the yard. Danny usually does it, but it has been too hot for him to do it when he gets home and it was very overdue due to the rains, which also makes it grow faster. Usually it takes about 2-1/2 hours just to mow the entire yard. Then it is my job to get out the electric mower and weed wacker to get the parts that can't be reached by the riding mower. Plus weeding and tree trimming, it's hard to keep up. :: AUCTIONS :: CATTLE There are 2 new bulls in the herd. They still seem to be trying to figure out what they are supposed to do. Clifford has been moving his cows to the neighboring pasture and his bulls interact with our bulls. There is a lot of mooing and pawing the earth. Then one day, Frederick the bull decided the grass looked greener on our side and decided to come through the fence. Clifford on his tractor and Kelly (our neighbor and Clifford's sister-in-law) on her ATV, chased him around our 80 acres but he didn't want to cooperate. I went out on foot and tried to help. I was actually able to chase him into our cattle pen. Unfortunately, Clifford doesn't have a cattle trailer so we tried herding him out our front gate but the bull would have none of it and veered off into the pasture. Because Clifford had to get to work, Frederick spent the day with our cows and our neighbor Jimmy (Clifford's brother) was able to coax him back home that evening. The cows were moved back to Glenda's property in July to give our pasture a rest. It is a bit of a relief since I don't have to yell at the dogs as much but the grass it getting pretty tall again. :: POND There doesn't seem to be any fish in our bigger pond, but it is full of bullfrog tadpoles. I'm guessing they are why the pond is always so muddy. We have heard the songs of a number of different frogs in the various ponds. When I go to investigate they all shut right up. There is one type of frog that sounds just like dogs barking. :: PETS Aiko seems to hate Missouri. She also doesn't like Buster. She rarely goes outside anymore. We have been having to put her on a leash to make her come on the morning walk. She spends most of her time sleeping in the bathtub. We were going to shave her but I think she would just look too weird. Kitty-kitty (she never got a better name) loves to go outside. I believe she is becoming quite the hunter. I have found several dead rodents and birds. I was somewhat happy to see the dead mice, but very sad to see the dead hummingbird. We were trying to just let her out a night but she's fast! Bootsie is looking very old. The vet says she is 10 years old. She is very thin and losing hair by the handful. Of course it is 100 degrees in the barn most days and she doesn't leave it much, but I'm worried she may not make it through another winter. :: VISITS Danny's mother came to visit a week later. Without a car, she was at our mercy for entertainment and spent most of the visit watching us up put up trusses on the shop. Danny did take her to an auction one day. We also spent a lot of time sitting on the back porch watching the birds and the bees. The carpenter bees were busy boring into the porch rafters to make their nests. No one else we know has offered to come to Missouri to visit us. But we have a guest room for any brave enough to venture out here to see it all for themselves. :: GARDEN :: NEXT :: NATURE GARDEN : : WILDFLOWERS : : INSECTS : : CHAPTER 5 |
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