Find beauty under the ugly

11/21/09 Saturday
I got my computer back. They said that the data was successfully backed up. I’ll find out for sure later. But with that done I was able to successfully install a new operating system so the laptop works fine now, with the exception of the fact that the new battery still won’t work. I’m sure that this is due to my not doing something write when I put the new motherboard in. Either that or the new motherboard is defective or perhaps the new battery. I need a new computer but we’ll have to wait and see exactly what the inheritance from my dad will be. With the new operating system installed I basically have a blank computer just like it was when we bought it six years ago. So now begins the process of finding and installing all the software programs that were added over the course of that time. Right now I’m putting the spyware program on. Yesterday the first thing that happened when I went online was that it checked for updates with Microsoft. You can bet there were a lot of them, six years worth. That took hours to download and install. Eventually I’ll start the process of manually downloading all the files and information that the computer place was able to recover. In the meantime I’ll continue keeping this journal on Cherie’s laptop.








I dug up some of the old wood that I was able to recover from my old warehouse in Toledo, stuff that people didn’t recognize as valuable so didn’t steal. The reason I dug it out was that the old man wanted to look at it to see if he would like to use it as a mantle on his fireplace. So I got the big sander/grinder out and removed the rough surface off of some of it so that you can see the beauty hidden underneath. The fact that you couldn’t and that it looked so rough is the reason it wasn’t stolen. Few people would have any idea that this is black walnut. Not just regular walnut, which is valuable in its’ own right, but black walnut, a much rarer variety. I so much love finding beauty in ugliness and in bringing it out through hard work. This helps inspire me to get back into the woodworking I love. I need to clean up the garage in order to access the woodworking equipment I’ve been blessed with.




I’ve been working on bolting these tires together and then will attach them to the three point hitch with some chains. It’s been killing by back but I’m used to that. As I worked on it this morning I had a slowdown so took a break (thus I’m writing this) Cherie took Carman kitty to the vet this morning. She is stressing badly about my going to Toledo. I love her and don’t want to be the cause of that. Her fears are legitimate and not totally unreasonable. I understand and actually share some of them. I would prefer taking her with me as she provides a security for me just as much as I do for her and I know that with her at my side trouble is less likely to find me. We must trust in God.

I fired up the tractor and worked some on making a drive. I found a source of caliche, which is a white rock that is used on roads and stuff like that around here, so I want to prepare some places to put it. Unfortunately it doesn’t take long before the tractor doesn’t like to go into reverse and this time it’s worse than usual. I managed to back it up to the plow I put together so I hooked that up, anxious to see how it works. It works great. Only took a few minutes to do what used to take days. But the tractor is giving me fits so I finally gave up and parked it. On the way I knocked over a fence post. The bar that holds the plow blades sticks out from the side of the tractor so I’ll have to get used to that. On Facebook there’s a farm game that people play where they go through different kinds of scenarios in the process of building a farm. I get to play it for real. Little by little I’ll have a working farm. It’s a shame we got taken on the tractor so we’ll have to find a different one. But even this one is a big improvement on doing it all by hand.




I’m exhausted. Had a slowdown in the middle of the day. Can’t believe it’s only 5:00, feels like it should be 9:00. The back pain is high from working on the tire drag thing. Don’t want to lay down as it’s so nice out and will be dark in an hour.