A good yet hard day

Just thought of something I need to get going on. That is researching the many grants available for veterans, farms, disabilities, and other areas. Then, with Cathy’s (Cherie’s sister) help I can apply for them. The funds would be a key to making this a working farm.

1/2/07 Tuesday
That was the last little entry on yesterdays journal. It is cold outside with that dampness that makes you feel it so I don’t think I’ll do much outside today. I am running at a six on the bob scale this morning which is just below average. I will work on the research thing as well as start drawing up a business plan for the farm. I had done allot on this while we were in Toledo but stopped when we saw the money vanishing away, partly because of my brothers frantic rush to get a hold of his cash without allowing us to arrange financing to buy out his half. With that and Wayne Stroud’s offer on the farm that more than doubled the assessed value everything changed. We were told by the attorney handling the estate that the farm would be sold whether we wanted that or not. I was going to get wedding rings for Cherie and I as well as pay to have her teeth fixed but now we worry about paying the utilities and food.

Yesterday I had one of those emotional control moments where I get very angry. This time it was at Skittles. I had planted a five gallon bucket of winter wheat that Ronnie gave us after he mowed down all the weeds but nothing came up. There was some seed left so I raked up a patch of dirt next to the veranda. (That’s the area by our kitchen door. I don’t know what a veranda is but it sounds good so that’s what we call it) Then I spread the seed out and covered it with dirt the way Ronnie said to. Wasn’t long before birds were on it but I figured Skittles would chase them away. Nope. He was laying on his favorite chair ten feet away and not budging as these birds flung dirt around in their greed to get at this evidently prized bird treat. I chased the birds off several times and yelled at Skittles to “Get those birds you worthless cat”. (I probably didn’t say it that nice). They kept coming and Skittles kept lazily watching so I blew up. Hate when that happens. Not good.

Anyway, this morning I got some clear plastic out of the garage and covered the area with it. Don’t know if there is anything left but I would at least like to see what it looked like. This is an issue we will need to understand better when we start planting our garden in the spring. There are also things like animals who love to eat garden plants we’ll have to learn how to deal with. I’ll put a post on the homesteader website I visit so much to see what these professional growers do.

Cherie is going to run into town this morning to take care of financial stuff at the bank.

8:45 PM – It was a good day yet a hard day. I didn’t get much better regarding how sharp my thinking processes were but I did have a headache that eventually moved to migraine level.

Today I picked up and boxed the remaining canning jars that Lee had hoarded over the years. I threw away all the jars that wouldn’t work with standard canning lids yesterday. There were so many they almost filled a third of the dumpster. I gathered all the aluminum pieces of cookware and other aluminum items that I will strip down later and turn in for the scrap money. The seashells and other decorative things I put in the garage where they will remain till we are ready to decide what will go in the house and what won’t. I was going to put the hospital bed back on the bus but it’s too heavy for me to handle. Taking it off was hard enough but climbing up with it I can’t do. I did put the mattress in so it won’t get all soggy.

With that done I tried to open the hood of the bus to see what was there. That proved to be a challenge. It took some prying, spraying WD 40, and a little hammering to get it open. Boy, what a mess. Rats had made a home there also leaving their inevitable mess and the ever present calling card of rat poop. Some of the spark plug wires had been chewed through. Pulling the dipstick I see that there was water mixed in the oil leaving it white and foamy, a sign that the motor could have a cracked block or blown head gasket. I was surprised to see how small the motor is. It is a Ford 330 cubic inch V-8. Never heard of that size and I thought I knew them all. Regardless it doesn’t look good as far as me getting the motor running at least enough to move the bus.

By this time I started to have a slow down. This one affected the part of my brain they had taught to control my right leg. Thus the partial paralysis became evident and walking became difficult and I had to really concentrate on making sure my foot went where it was supposed to. That’s the way it goes. These petite seizures affect different parts of the brain with different types of results. Sometimes I get real confused and other times it’s physical. I never know. The bad ones seem to hit everything. I shuffled around for the rest of the day.

The last thing I did today was tackle the hen house. That is the last big mess to deal with. And what a mess it is. This was the old chicken coop where Lee and Rudy kept the chickens. I remember them well, especially a bantam hen Lee called Gertrude. I have some pictures of them and the quail that the chickens had adopted and raised. They might be stored on this computer so I’ll see if I can find them. Yep,I found it.

Anyway, it seems that after they got rid of the chickens, probably cause they were too much to deal with as Lee and Rudy got older, Rudy used the hen house to store things in. The pack rat debris was piled three feet high along with all the other stuff. Included in that were boxes and boxes of magazines that had belonged to R.S. Lewis, an old friend of Rudy’s. I remember him also. Quite a mischievous old fart. There were old tools buried under this crap, some of which I can use after repair the handles. There is also some mysterious device I will have to investigate later. No time for that now. I burned lots of the debris in the burn barrel but what you see in this picture is after I peeled of the top foot or so of crap. Still have a ways to go..

By six o’clock I was done for, moving around like I was 80 years old. Plus it was getting dark so I called it a day. Cherie had been designing her advertisement for sewing services that she plans on posting on bulletin boards around Stanton. When she saw what kind of shape I was in she made coffee and whipped up something to eat. I had planned on going to the church dinner bible study thing but don’t go out when I’m not doing well so didn’t.

So that was our day. I’ll call it quits now so goodnight.