Christmas 2015 and beyond

 We had a good Christmas here. Allen and Sheri were down for it, and Heather was here, too.

 Santa's helper! Jessica had her elf hat on.

 Then on the 29th, Norman went in for his transformation into little white wrappers. He was by far the biggest ever, with a weight of 1575lbs. He loaded well, but I got a kick from him when we unloaded him. Luckily, it didn't connect squarely, just a glancing blow.

The kids got me a hitch for my truck for Christmas. Since it finally stopped raining, I got it put on today.

Last week's update

I finally found someone that had a bumper for my truck. I had already called every salvage yard in the area with no luck. There wasn't much left of the original bumper.

Somebody over in Nicholasville was scrapping out an '02 Silverado and still had the bumper. I hurried over and got it before it was gone. 

It took a couple of days with the grinder to get the old bumper and hitch off, and a few more hours to bolt the "new" one on. I still need to put another hitch on, but now I don't have to worry about the bumper falling off.

update

 This shot is from our trip down the Kentucky River several weeks ago. We had fun, even though Heather got sunburned.

 Jim, Lisa and I started with a big oak tree in the pasture behind us. It was a pin oak that came down in a storm a couple weeks ago. We had to wait until we got permission to cut it up.

 As you can see from the crown, it was a big tree.

 Another trailer full of good firewood for the Warner's stove. Not this year, though. It still needs to be seasoned.

There is still another 8-10 feet of trunk left to be cut. We will come back for it another day.

Weeks worth

 First up is the tractor repair from a couple weeks ago. New parts and old ones side by side. The bushing was the biggest problem, but since I had to remove the gear to get to it, it got replaced, too.

 Yesterday, we removed the tree in Kylie's creek. It was a big sycamore, estimated around 75 years old.

 We got to fish some of the upper branches out of the water to get them cut up. Good thing the water level was low!

                                    There was a LOT of wood in the tree. It was also very wet from laying in the creek for the last few weeks.

 Since it was also Kylie's birthday, we had a picnic while we were working. Pizza, cake and ice cream were on the menu. Heather has more of these pictures posted.

Today, I took the boat out to the lake for a few hours. I realized that I need to spend more time out here. It was a beautiful day.

July 4th, plus...

 Allen came down for the 4th of July holiday, so the whole family was here. The driveway looked like it used to in Argyle, with cars everywhere.

 While he was here, Allen got us an early Christmas present - a new washer. I had to build a pedestal for it. It is built WAY heavier than is needed, but I wanted to be sure it would withstand vibration from the washer as well as the weight. This washer is heavier than a regular washer.

 It is an LG front loader and works a lot better than our old washer.

 When I mowed Kylie's place last week, I noticed the tractor wasn't pulling right, so I put a new drive belt on it.

This is the old belt. No wonder it wasn't working very well. I'm kind of surprised it was still in one piece.

 After taking Ben to Flemingsburg to be turned into white wrappers, I played with the skidsteer loader that Lisa and Jim rented. We were cleaning out the sheep barn. We brought 4 loads total over here.

Both trucks were pressed into service, as well as Lisa and Jim's truck for the last load. They were much easier to load than to unload, but we have fewer low spots in the yard now.

Porch work

 I put down some sealer on the deck part of the porch a week ago. We meant to do that before now, but time just got away from us. It looks new again.

 Yesterday I started painting the ceiling of the porch. It didn't look bad, but I wanted to get ahead of the wood bees. They were starting on it. We picked blue because we heard they won't bother it if it is close to the color of the sky. I don't know if that is true, but we're going to find out.

 After the roller work, it was looking good until I ran out of paint. I had gotten the main part and about halfway down the ramp.

I picked up more paint and finished it all off  this afternoon. I still need to paint the posts, but we're still deciding on the color for that.

A little bit of everything

 I started the weekend off by painting part of the porch. The handrails and bench, to be exact. Lynne has gotten a couple of splinters from the handrail, so it was time to do something. They were sanded down first.

 Even the long one on the ramp got sanded and a couple of coats to help make it smooth.

 The bench was done too. We made sure it was dry before we sat on it.

 I had to replace the drive belt on the tiller, too. It has never been replaced, so it was about 15 years old. Excellent durability. I hope the new one does as well!

Mom had a good weekend, too. There were 4 of us at Lisa & Jim's this weekend. Boo & Sarah were here for a dog show and Matthew was here for training in Georgetown.

Got the boat out finally

 The lake is still well above flood level, but I know which ramps stay open during high water. This ramp is Alfrey, at the Twin Knobs area. The street light is an indicator of the water level, since it usually is well back from the water.

 Here, the nose of the boat is tucked into a tree top and the water level under the boat is 28 ft. You can just make it out in the bottom left corner of the sonar unit.

 The space under this boat is the Clay Lick launch and parking lot. If you look closely, you can see a street light top on the left side, as well as a roof.

It was still a beautiful day on a very pretty lake. I managed to catch a branch while I was out fishing

Catch - up weekend

 The grass was getting pretty long, so I had to get the mower ready to go. I changed the oil, and while it was draining, we cleaned and painted the underside of the mower deck.

 It turned out Ok. It could have used another coat, but we ran out of paint.

The "we" part was some help from Allen. He came down with Sheri for our late March birthday celebration.

And first thing Monday morning, we got a gravel delivery. Another 28 tons added to the driveway. It had gotten quite soft over the winter. This should help. I still have a couple of small piles to spread where the truck couldn't get to.

Flood damage

The water has receded and the culverts are gone. So is most of the backfill that made up the bridge. Heather and I walked downstream about a mile and a half this morning and found one of the pipes and brought it back. The other could not be found. After we repair the fence, we will decide what to do.

Flooding

Today's extremely heavy rain produced quite a bit of flooding. I didn't expect it to take down the fence, though. I hope my culverts are still there. I won't know until the water goes down.

Garden experiment

 Since our spinach seems to drown more than it grows, we're going to try an experiment this year. This will also include the scallions. They didn't grow last year, either. First, you need an old scrap pallet and some scrap lumber for legs.

 You knock the last board off each end of the pallet and attach the legs and something for the end of the box.

 Then add something for extra support in between the slats. Heather had some wire left over from the rabbit cages, so we used that. I stapled it down to keep it in place.

 Add sides, also from scraps I had around. These happen to be 5 1/2 inches tall. Then put in some landscape fabric to keep the dirt in. That was the most expensive part of this elevated bed. It was $8 at Tractor Supply, but I needed it for something else too, so it will all be used.

Then just add dirt. This one held 240 lbs. to fill it to the top - 6 bags of topsoil. They were on sale today at Tractor Supply for $1 per bag. Now we will see if the veggies grow better.

Redneck Snow Plow

 OK, it was just an idea until it started to snow AGAIN. We got another 10" last night. I'm starting to think I'm back in New York.

 I threw it together this morning with what pieces of scrap lumber I had sitting in the shed and clamped it to the front rack of the 4 -wheeler.

It doesn't lift or pivot, but it sure beats shoveling all this by hand. Now when they plow the road, we can get out.