Spring Fever

Booger has reminded me that spring is around the corner. He has been scratching himself something fierce like he has fleas. I haven't seen any fleas, so I thought he had mites like his Mama. She had mites that had her loosing hair. Booger was not loosing hair, just scratching. So I got him to the vet for a blood test so I could buy his heart worm medicine again. The vet stated Booger was allergic to fleas. I have heard this before with Luke's cat, Milo. With the cost of the blood test, office visit, medicine and shampoo I got for Booger, it ran over $160. Wow, just a little bit wrong costs a bunch now. I am suppose to wash him every 3-4 days, but the weather is not cooperating. So far he is doing awesome on the pills I feed him everyday inside portions of wieners. It has been nice enough to wrestle with him. He loves it and really gets excited when someone takes the time to go one on one with him. You just have to have long sleeves and gloves on.

The pond's water level is somewhere over 5 feet now. The increase of water into the pond has slowed to almost zero. We have added some cinder blocks in the shallow end for habitat for the smaller fish. I used the Mahindra's backhoe to level a small area to stack them two blocks high. We were planning on strapping these together and sinking them in the deep end. But pricing the tool to strap them here at home had me change my mind. Instead, I have located an old cess pool tank to sink in the deep end. I hope to pick this tank up next weekend. It is about 3 foot in diameter and about 4 feet deep. It has two holes about 6 inches in diameter in the sides. It should work as fish habitat. It will not snag lines and lures like the big oak stump would

We got the posts for the deck set in concrete in the dam and the frame of the deck in. I have mixed emotions on the placement of the deck. The shore side of it overhangs the bulkhead we built to keep the dam away from the cedar tree and our pet graves. I am not concerned over the deck keeping more rain away from the tree, but just the look of it so far seems off. I mean the bulkhead is half an octagon and the deck overhang is just a straight 2x6. So it looks a little odd to me.

The Rye grass is growing well and soon it will be time for mowing it all. It will be a fun learning to mow the curves around the dam with my zero turn Hustler lawnmower. I have been thinking about buying some St. Augustine grass sod to line the upper end of the pond's shore. Since this area really is my back yard, I am thinking it might be better than Bermuda grass there. I still have not figured out how to plant Bermuda grass on the dam without discing the dam. I am thinking of trying dragging some cyclone feet about 6 feet behind my lawnmower after spreading Bermuda grass seed. If that doesn't work, then I will have to buy a harrow to drag behind the lawnmower. Too bad I don't have a smaller Mahindra with disc for landscaping use. That would work for the Bermuda grass planting on the dam.

The Big RED Beast is coming up on her Second birthday with me. I can not believe I have had her two years. It seems like only yesterday I picked up the keys from Travis! I have racked up 425.5 hours on her now. I look forward to each time I get on her. I am always trying to think up new uses for her.

Speaking of Travis, I was shocked to find out he is leaving Top Flight Equipment. He is leaving with their service manager, two parts counter guys, and their small engine mechanic. They will be opening a lawnmower and chain saw outlet in Conroe. Their new company will be called Outdoor Equipment Outlet. This is all a shock to me. I have been dealing with Top Flight and Travis for over 12 years. Travis has sold me my Stihl chainsaw, my Hustler Fastrac lawnmower and of course the Big RED Beast. I can't fathom going to Top Flight without talking to Travis. I will miss him.

Christina and I made the Saxet Gun Show at the Lone Star Convention Center in Conroe today. I was looking for Ruger Mini 14s and Remington R10s. Christina was checking out all the pistols and revolvers as she wants to get one of her own. We did stumble across a Taurus Judge Ultra Lite. It is really lite and fires a 45 Colt and 2 & 1/2 inch .410 shells. Definitely a home defense revolver. Yesterday at sundown, I sat up a firing lane behind the pond's clay pile. I wanted Christina to see the difference between my .45 and .380. She fired 6 shots through my Ruger LCP and the magazine release button fell out! These six rounds were the first fired in the gun since Ruger returned it to me for a hammer safety recall. I am really at a loss of words over this. I mean, what if my life depended on me firing 2 shots and the magazine fell out after one shot? I sure hope Ruger fixes this for me!

Rebecca will leave her Maw maw's house tomorrow to come pick up her truck. I had it here to get the right side mirror replaced, as Rebecca had backed into a pole and broken it. A portion of the powered mirror mount had broken with the mirror. My local garage tried to repair it and told me a replacement assembly cost around $500. I told them I had priced a heated, powered, mirror assembly from the local Dodge dealer for $189, $204 with tax. Ya gotta remember the tax! I paid the Dodge dealer for it the next morning and delivered it to the garage. They installed it for $86. Along with a state inspection, the bill came to $125 dollars. That is a lot for a broken mirror and an inspection. When I picked up the truck last week, I told the service manager I had priced pairs of mirrors for around $500 and I bet that is the price that was quoted to him. Oh how I am looking forward to seeing Rebecca again. I will be asleep, but the interruption is worth it.
So anyway, I added more photos of work on the pond. You can check them out here. I hope to hear from y'all about what is going on it your lives. Stop back later to check out what Booger, the Big RED Beast, and I are doing.
hugs, Brandi

Spring Is Around The Corner

What is it about the end of winter that gives you cabin fever? While I dug the pond, the weather was cold. If I hadn't been racing a rain deadline, I would have been in the warm house. But now with warmer days and sunshine, I have been looking forward to longer, hotter days. These lead me to more physical exercise, that my winter inactivity has changed into a weight gain. Face it, I gain weight in the winter and lose it in the summer. I just need to extend my weight loss season longer and shorten my weight gain season. Hopefully this would curtail fluctuating between 2 different clothing sizes! This last summer and winter's concerns over my Mother kept me from working outside as much as I usually do. Thus a weight gain that has my normal winter "fat" cloths very tight. So I am anxious for spring and summer to literally work my butt off! So far this spring we have had several beautiful sunsets. I know more will come with all the time we will spent at the pond.

I have been spending all my weekends visiting Rebecca in the hospital in Austin. Over the last four weeks, she has slowly stabilized to the meds enough to be released from the hospital on the 17th of February. Just one day shy of a month. Now, she will go stay with my ex Mother in law up in East Texas. My ex Mother in law lives on a 70 acre lake. Last Saturday, Christina and I drug my gooseneck trailer over to Austin to bring Rebecca's truck back to get her right side mirror replaced and to get the truck inspected. A brake lite was out also, but this afternoon I tinkered with it and got it working. I wanted to be back home before dark, but we wound up getting home around 9 P.M. This included a stop in Giddings at Walmart for some extra large cinder blocks. These cinder blocks measure 16x8x12 inches. We are stacking them 2 blocks high in a 6 block pattern with 3 block holes end to end making a large enough "fish" tunnel of 24 inches long for even 3-4 pound catfish. There are 8 "tunnels" in all and all we need to do is obtain some plastic shipping straps and a banding tool to strap the blocks together. We will then use my 6520s backhoe to sling the blocks into the water and sit on the bottom of the pond's deep end. The blocks measure just 31 inches tall and the water in the deep end is over 5 feet now, so we will have to be precise in our sitting with the backhoe or get wet making sure the blocks settle right. The water is cold and I really don't want to go in the water at this time, but want to place the blocks in soon. I am planning on securing one end of a twenty foot chain to my backhoe's bucket and run the chain through the top two openings. then I will secure the other end to one of the bucket's digging teeth. This way I can use a chain and then release the chain by uncurling the bucket. The chain will then slip off the tooth and the other end will be secure to get my chain back without getting wet..............I hope.

Rebecca and my ex stopped by this afternoon to pick up Rebecca's cat, Sammy. Sammy had come home with me a month ago when Rebecca went into the hospital. Sammy has since won her way into our hearts and is always pawing at me, while I am on the computer, to pay attention to her and pet her. She is a fluffy calico tabby. Rebecca calls her Sammy Sosoft.

Speaking of lakes, Lake Marie now has a water level of over five feet deep. About three and one half feet of water has seeped in while we were way behind in rain. The Rye grass I planted at the end of January is about three inches high now. But I still had some areas around the lake erode and silt the water to a muddy grey/green.

I have been pricing Channel and Blue catfish fingerlings the last two weeks. I almost bought twenty five Channel catfish fingerlings last week, but my supervisor talked me into stocking Blue catfish to keep the muddy water to a minimum. The Channel cats were from an out of state fish farm that delivers to a local feed store. Securing the Blue cats will include an hour and one half drive, down south of Houston to Danbury, Texas, home of Danbury Fish Farms. This will be on the third Saturday of March.

Booger is just beside him self over the water in the pond. When I was digging it, he would not come down into the hole to get petted by me. Normally he is right at the side of the Mahindra waiting for attention. Now he is starting to venture down into the pond at the shallow end for a drink. He seems anxious over the deep end with it's three foot high dam and steeper slopes.He knocked some dirt into the deep end the other day and almost jumped in when it hit the water with a splash. Guess he thought it was a squirrel or a stick I threw for him to fetch. The Winter Rye grass I seeded is coming up nice now. I am starting to take regular breaths again after worrying if the rains would wash the seeds away.

I have uploaded a few more photos that you can see here. Stop back later to hear how I will make a combination pier and deck on Lake Marie.

hugs, Brandi

Lake Marie

I took time from digging to give the dam a fine grading and try to flatten the top a little. I was wanting it to rain before I did this, but the rains have not come. My days are sliding together as all I do is focus on the pond. I really was not planning on taking off so much time this early in the year, but the weather is prime for a pond. A tree trimming company has been trimming limbs on the high lines. They came down our street while I was off. Every truck I saw and even the trimmer operator was flagged down by me to ask if they would trim the lines on my property. They trimmed a few, but I have more that they didn't bother with. The boomed trimmer on tracks is an awesome machine. The operator's compartment pivots with the boom, so the operator is always looking straight ahead. The boom itself can stretch up to about 70 feet. I have been hauling so much clay, I have been adding spoils to the pile at a level of about 12 feet. I have one big clay ramp leading up to the pile. I keep forgetting to stop and take a photo of my Mahindra on top of the pile. I am sure it would look awesome. With Christina's help, we surveyed the pond elevation and marked it all around the shoreline every 7 feet with orange paint. Then we lined up the the water hose level to level out and stake the position and elevation of the spillway pipe. It will be a 15 inch diameter culvert running under the dam and my driveway. I will use chicken wire over the inlet until I can get a steel grate made. This should keep the fish in if it floods and fills the pond to capacity.
I posted photos of the water hose level on http://www.nettractortalk.com/. A bunch of online friends stated the water hose level is a low cost way to find elevations of the pond. Erik, from Kansas asked if I wanted to use his laser level. He sent me a private message to ask for my address. He sent it prepaid by UPS. I tried it out this morning, when I got home from work, but the sun was way to bright. So I went to bed and after spreading topsoil around the pond this afternoon, I got the laser out and started playing with it and learning how to utilize it. I found the max waterline level to the gully (130 feet away) is right at 10 feet difference in elevation. So I now know I can drain the whole pond, if I want to buy and bury 130 feet of pipe. I was planning on a 6 inch drain, but with all the cost of pipe, it may have to be 4 inch pipe. The generous loaning of this laser level is one reason I like the tractor community so much. People bend over backwards to be friendly and lend a hand. Genuine friendliness, going beyond words of encouragement to help out in one way or another. It doesn't matter what color your tractor is either. You can tell you have their respect and attention when you post about some project you did and forget to include photos. That is when someone speaks out by posting...."This Thread Is Totally Worthless Without Pictures".
I went back to work after a week and a half of digging and working on my pond. It has been right at a month since I started my pond. In that one month our area is already behind in rainfall over 3 inches. I know the Lord is holding the rain until I get rye grass seed out and maybe until I get all the piping and valve in. But the first night back at work had me worried. I had been talking with Rebecca that morning. I was worried because she kept repeating herself and talking non stop. She was in the early stages of another bi-polar episode. The last one was way back in 2003 when she was in the first week of her freshman year at the University of Texas. Bless her heart, it caught us all unaware. As the reality set in, it devastated all of us. Luckily back then Rebecca was still on my health insurance. But now she is 23 years old and will hopefully be released from the hospital next week. She will be having weekly appointments with her Doctor that she has seen for the last five years. This Doctor's office visits are $140.00 each. So it looks like I will be forced to work some overtime. Which will cut into finishing the pond and getting seat time on my 6520.
So tomorrow, before I travel back to Austin to visit her, I plan on finish spreading the topsoil and packing it down, then spreading rye grass seed. I bought ten pounds of seed, so I should get enough grass growing to keep erosion in control until I can seed with Bermuda grass seed. We are forecast with rain for Sunday, so I pray it comes and helps the seed germinate. Wish me luck. No, say a few prayers for Rebecca. She will have a difficult time until she gets back on her own and not having one of us parents watching over her. It is very stressful for all of us in that respect. Pray for me that I will get tractor therapy when I need it. Stop back later to see how the grass grows here. Also, check out some of the new photos I uploaded here.
hugs, Brandi

Typical January Weather

Typical January weather for this part of Texas is 35-40 degrees and raining. This combination gives you a bone chilling cold. But this month hasn't had any rain. Yet. The dam is basically finished and I have been digging the pond down to 10 feet. I screwed up and dug straight down about 2 feet from the dam at the drain end. What was I thinking. I did this for about 15 feet around the dam. I am digging the non dam sides down to 5 feet. When I get finished digging to depth, I will go back and finish these sides from ground level. I will slope them down to 5 feet and give the shore line a more curved shape. I really wanted to purchase a neat laser level to site in the water line. But this is a few hundred dollars I do not need to spend. Instead I bought clear tubing and water hose connections. I installed about two feet of clear tubing on each end of my 100 foot water hose. I clamped one end to a wooden stake driven into the ground and filled the hose with water until I saw water at each end. Then I marked the water level on the stake. Then I just walked around the shoreline with the non staked end and sprayed orange paint in the dirt at the elevation of the water. I did this about every 15 feet. I was surprise to see my eyeball guess was within 6 inches of the paint marks. In aviation I work in hundredths of an inch tolerance. I have always heard in house construction that 1/4 inch tolerance is okay. So I guess in pond building 6 inches will be good enough until I start sitting the overflow and drain pipes.

Murphy seems to always visit me about dark thirty when I am trying to get that last minute of work done. I started hearing a ticking sound at idle. I drove over to my workshop and shut the engine off. I took the engine side cowl off and checked it over. It sounded like the alternator going out. I cranked the engine back up and I grabbed a long screwdriver to listen to the engine. I put the handle to my ear and the blade on the alternator and hydraulic pump. The noise wasn't coming from either one. So I shut down again and checked fan belt tension. That was good. So I thought Murphy was going to have to break it so I could find it. I went back to the pond. I had just turned on the backhoe's lights when all electrical quit. Then the battery light came on, followed by the over temperature light. I stowed the backhoe with the stick I made. I found having a 3 foot long stick with a leather loop works great to raise the backhoe when I am using it as a tractor stop. At first I was using a Mahindra yardstick, but it fell off the back of the 6520 and was ran over by a rear tire. Oops! With the slope down into the pond, the tractor would roll with brakes on and the loader bucket down. So I put the backhoe stabilizers down to stop any accidents. I just reach around and push on the stabilizers levers with the stick and instance firm stopping. I limped to the barn with just the two warning lights on. I raised the loader to the rafters and shut the Big RED Beast down. Opening the hood and side cowl, I saw my problem. A pulley was laying in the bottom of the engine frame. But which pulley. I was sure my alternator froze up and took out the fan belt. I could see dollar signs when I saw no pulley on the hydraulic pump. On closer inspection, I saw that the pulley had broken off the pump gearbox hub and the 4 mounting bolts were still attached.

By the time I figured this out it was 6 o'clock. Rats! Top Flight closed at 5. So I buttoned the Big RED Beast's engine up and called it a day. I was at Top Flight bright and early the next morning. I kinda figured they wouldn't have the pulley, but was praying Mahindra's Houston warehouse would. It took us an hour to ascertain that Mahindra did have two pulleys, but what they had and what I had were different. Gosh, if only the mechanic could talk to the guy on the other end of the phone. I had to take my broken pulley into Houston to see if they matched. The reason the parts manual and my part didn't look the same is the new pulley came with the spline gear hub. So I have an extra spline gear now. Mahindra's parts warehouse is in a maze of business warehouses in Northwest Houston. It took me about 45 minutes to get there. I was surprised to be greeted with my parts order ready to go. After talking a while with Mike in parts, I headed home. After buying 30 more gallons of dyed diesel, I was home just after two. By 3:15 my 65 horsepower Mahindra was purring like a kitten. The rest of the afternoon is a blur now. Man, it sure is hard being accustom to sleeping in the day and being up all day while building my pond! I was getting up at 6 or 7 and working past dark. Each day I was getting up and turning on the TV to get the latest weather forecast. The Lord must have favored me building a pond, because it hasn't rained when it was forecast to rain. I am really sweating it out finishing the digging before all that nice dry clay gets wet. As you can see in the photo below, it is really tight inside the pond for the Big RED Beast to dig, make a pile of clay and get back out. +

It took a lot of careful thought and slow turning to  get the clay out safely. Sometimes it was stressful, but I still had a huge grin on my face. I have always wanted my own pond since I was little when Dad raised Mallard Ducks and Ring Neck pheasants. Dad would clip one wing of the ducks with Mom's pinking scissors to keep them from flying off. I still can see the Mallards flying in circles and always returning to our wet weather duck pond. Oh yeah, I am going to honor my Mom and use here middle name for my pond. But I will not call it Marie's Pond, but I will name it Lake Marie. Now I know it is way to small to be called a lake by any means. But after all, I built it! Booger has been keeping his distance while I am digging in the pond. He was reluctant at first to come see me in the pond. But now he makes regular visits into the pond when he wants attention. Otherwise he is laying in the sun just a few feet from the future shoreline.

Check out the newest photos I uploaded here. Please stop back later to see how Lake Marie is coming along.

hugs, Brandi

Plans for the New Year

Christmas wasn't too noteworthy. Luke and Rebecca exchanged gifts with me two days before Christmas so they could be up at my ex mother-in-law's lake house Christmas Day. Again, I cooked a large meal, meaning to take a couple of plates to Dad, as he didn't want to come over from the nursing home. I called before his supper time and asked them to hold his, as I was on my way with his Christmas dinner. I was really let down when he was eating ham sandwiches when I arrived. It hurt to see that. Come to find out the aide didn't give Dad a dinner tray, but someone else did when they saw Dad didn't have any dinner! So I bought it home and took it back the next morning. His nurse took the plates and put them in the ice box for later in the day. I really don't know if Dad got to eat the meal I cooked for him or not. I made Christina a ferret cage for her new fuzzy, Dancer. I gave it to her for Christmas. I had around 40 hours in its construction. So add in labor and this cage was expensive!

The Monday after Christmas, Rebecca and I put poinsettias on Mom's grave. then we drove by the lake in the cemetery to see the ducks. I got excited about the ducks and wanted my own. There was a mud duck doing it's diving ritual. Rebecca liked that diving duck and told me to get one of them. Right then I decided to start my pond, for ducks and fishing! The very next day I started digging. I have been putting it off for a while now. I couldn't decide where to put it. For years I wanted to put it in the curve of the driveway with a overflow pipe going under the driveway. Then I cleared the land just down stream from the driveway, near my fence line and thought I might be able to put a larger pond there. But it was always wet there and too close to the deeded easements for rain water runoff. If I could tap into one of those wet weather streams, I would always have a full pond. But I would need written permission from the engineer that originally plotted the easements. I figured that would be worse than pulling teeth. I always thought I would need large amounts of dry weather. Well, that would help for sure. But inside the curve of the driveway it is way higher than down near the wet weather streams.

After much deliberation, I decided to dig my first pond in the smaller spot. Call this the trial pond. I can learn a lot digging it and can always build a bigger pond down on the other side of the driveway. I have wanted to have my own pond for years now. Over 20 years ago I contacted Texas A&M University (TAMU) about pond designing and building. TAMU responded by sending want I requested and detailed information on what fish to stock it with. It will be a big learning curve with all the trees near my pond. I started by taking out about half a dozen trees, then digging out the top soil. This took up the first day. I also trimmed a huge limb from the bent oak tree I want to be able to sit on while fishing. I had to cut one of the two upright limbs as the oak was starting to uproot. Not good when you want the tree to stay alive so you can sit on it and fish! I can just see me getting the pond just right and that bent oak uprooting and splashing into the water. Or taking out the power line to my house!

The removal of the topsoil went real fast. I had a pile taller then the Big RED Beast can dump, so I started rolling up into the pile to dump it. Then I got the lawn chair out and stared at the stripped ground. I had no plans or design. I just took all the information I had gleamed over the years and started digging a dam keyway from scratch. The keyway basically locks the dam in place and doesn't let the water shear the dam and push it sideways. Since my dam will only be three foot high and hold back only two feet of water, I dug my keyway down two feet into the clay with my Backhoe's 24 inch wide bucket and filled it with clay removed from the pond basin. I wasn't sure if the key way needed to be straight or if it could bend a little in direction. I needed to dig it in a slight "s" shape as it had to avoid the cedar tree I love so much. Filling the keyway had no real look to it. Basically I dug a trench and filled it with sticky clay. After the keyway filling came packing. I would load my KMW loader bucket with clay and drive over the keyway. This weight on the front tires really packed the clay in tight

After the keyway was packed, the real fun began. Digging the pond basin. I though most of my digging would be with my backhoe, but the digging started with my loader bucket's cutting edge being parallel to the clay and just trying to cut two or three inches of clay and letting the clay roll over and over in the bucket. This is the way big dozer operators do it and it really worked with my 6520 4WD pushing it. My dam took shape fast, but when packed down, seemed to disappear just as fast. After about half a day of piling clay and packing it, I could definitely see a dam.

After 3 days of construction, I decided to install a bulkhead around the cedar tree. I removed my thumb and backhoe bucket and installed my Danuser hydraulic auger motor and 9 inch auger to dig the 4 post holes in the solid clay. Before I did this, I dug my first post hole, that I would use, in the barn for a walk through door frame support post.

I really got excited how the auger and backhoe worked while digging a hole in the barn up against wall boards. I then dug the four post holes for the bulkhead. Christina gave me a hand sitting the posts and building the bulkhead. It really was great to have her there spoting for me when I got the loader bucket too close to the new bucket while back filling it.

After the bulkhead was up to two and a half feet high, we stopped going higher. I am planning on the dam being 3 feet high, so the top of the dam will be 6 inches higher then the bulkhead. That way rain run off will flow off the top and water the tree. I hope! Next on the agenda was to remove one driveway culvert. The dam had made this culvert useless where it was located. This culvert had 12 feet of black corrugated pipe and 4 feet of concrete culvert. I had crushed concrete over it. The crushed concrete, after 14 years of being ran over, was solid like concrete! It took a while to dig through it. Once we had the culvert removed, we moved it up the driveway and installed it in the ditch near the dam, connected to the other driveway culvert. Now I can pile and pack the dam higher. The existing culvert was just a little short when pulling my 20 foot gooseneck around the curve of the driveway. If I didn't pay attention, I could drop a wheel off the end of that culvert and that could be costly if the Mahindra was on board.

As I dug the pond basin deeper, its narrow width shortcoming was really showing up in that the big Mahindra is a little long to be in that narrow basin curvature. So far I have been careful, but one turn of the wheel to far with a loader bucket full of clay in that curved basin and the ground could come up to meet me real fast. So we are off to a good start with a week of little rain and dodging a really big storm yesterday. Now I get to wait all week before continuing digging, piling, and packing. Check out the new photos I uploaded here. Stop back later to see where the pond spillway goes. Oh yeah...Happy New Year!

hugs, Brandi

Past Holidays

It has been hard getting ready for the holidays. I haven't been my self and have had a difficult time keeping my focus. This is all from stress over grieving for Mom.  During all of this, I have been thinking of memories of Mom and all the fun holidays we had. One holiday that really sticks out in my mind was Christmas of 1969.
It was the first time in the winter, Dad took us to the farm he was raised on, just outside of Higgins, Texas. We went every summer for vacation. But this was the first Christmas to spend with Grandpa Williams. Grandpa lived on the farm alone, as Grandma passed away in 1967. Funny thing about that Christmas - Santa left all his presents in the trunk of our car! My brother and I couldn't see what was in the trunk! Dad had called Grandpa a week or two before and told him the kids (my brother and I) needed a tree, as in Christmas tree. Now Grandpa wasn't up on latest fads or gimmicks. The fad back then was silver aluminum trees with a multi color disk spinning in front of a light. I guess this was the fore runner to a disco ball. Anyway, Grandpa did what farmers do best, he made do with what he had on hand. On hand was a yard full of juniper bushes my Grandma had planted years ago. Grandpa took a limb out of one and some how supported it enough to hang a dozen or so ornaments on it, along with a small string of lights. It looked like a Charlie Brown Christmas tree. We loved it.

We had been traveling half the day and night, as it was a 625 mile trip. Dad had to be at his work Christmas party at noon on Christmas Eve, so we left right after that. I will always remember the flat top hill in Oklahoma with the large lighted cross. It sure gets you thinking on a cold night seeing that cross way off in the distance. This is were I got the idea of a lighted cross on my barn. Yes, we were in Texas and traveling to the farm in Texas. But Texas is just so huge and shaped with a pan handle, it is faster to cut across Oklahoma! We often traveled at night during the summer to avoid the heat, but that night we had blankets in the backseat of our '66 Mercury Parklane to snuggle with. When we got to Grandpa's farm, we were only allowed a peak at the tree limb Grandpa had lighted up. Then we were rushed off to bed in the north bedroom. That old farm house was so uninsulated, Mom stuffed towels around the window frame to keep the draft off of my brother and I as we slept on a mattress on the floor. We usually slept in the middle of three bedrooms, but Mom didn't want us sneaking peaks of Santa! We were in the same room with Mom and Dad that night. Mom got us to bed and Dad, well....I really don't remember were Dad was when Mom was trying to get us to sleep! I got my first shotgun that year. A Savage .410 single shot. It could be broke down into 3 parts in half a minute. Two days after Christmas it snowed. We were not snowed in, but the roads down in Dallas were ice, so we got to stay two days longer. For the first time, I got to go quail hunting with my very own shotgun! But this hunt was extra special as we hunted in the snow. Uncle Woody had hunting dogs, but for that cold snowy day, the dogs stayed at the farm house. I will never forget hunting the creek bottom, watching for distinctive quail tracks in the snow. I don't remember us shooting anything worth eating that day, but it was the best hunting day I ever had.

One Thanksgiving in the mid to late 1960s comes to mind also. While Mom cooked turkey day dinner, Dad loaded David and I up in his mattress truck and we went to the local grass strip airport and drove out into a hay field. I was astonished to find out we were going to fill the mattress truck up with hay. I was too small to help, but kept swinging out the door of the truck on mattress ticking. The ticking came in 1 and one half inch wide rolls. It was used to sew the edges of mattresses together. Dad used it in the truck to secure mattresses when they got stacked high. I used it as a swinging rope! Guess who got to sweep out the truck when all the hay was unloaded? yes, you guessed right. I did. Here is a photo of that truck with Mom and our 1966 Rambler American.

The truck had right side and rear doors. We liked to swing out from the side door and jump. It wasn't as scary jumping from the side as from the back. The side didn't have a bumper you could hit! By the time we got the hay in our barn's hayloft, it was time to eat.

We always went over to my Aunt Cora Mae's for Christmas Eve. We didn't exchange gifts with my Aunt and Uncle and cousins. We basically went there to take Grandma over there. It was always a big thing, as my Aunt had 4 daughters, 3 of which were married and had their kids there. Most were my age and we raised holy havoc till we were throttled down by one of our parents. When two parents came after us, we knew we were in trouble. It never dawned on me that they opened Santa's gifts on Christmas Eve and we opened gifts from Santa on Christmas morning. I was just in awe of all the presents exchanged on the Eve of our Lord's birth.

Mom always had a party on New Year's Eve. She made Ginger Ale and Sherbet in a large punch bowl. It tasted good and always was cold. But I don't remember ice being in the mix. We never had alcohol in our house or during partys. It was the way Mom and Dad were raised. It was the way I was raised. Since it was New Year's Eve, we had lots of fireworks. My cousins and I popped and popped firecrackers till our eyes closed or we ran out of punks. Once, this happened to my brother and I and my uncle gave me his lite cigarette. Phew, what a stinking smell. I gave it back to him and tried to find more punks from a cousin. While us kids popped fireworks, the elders gathered in our garage for ping pong. Since I am left handed, Dad would sometimes have me join him in doubles. That was a lot of fun. But wow, could my uncles slam that ball back to me. I usually ducked when that happened.

Mom always had me help her prepare for the party. We had a hand cranked grinder that had three or four different rotors that could grate up different sizes of fruits. It had suction cups for feet and my brother always tried to stick them on me. He would chase me around the kitchen and dining room. I got to crank while she pushed the fruit in. When I got older, She had me grate up Apples, Carrots, and Pineapple for a Fruit Salad. I don't remember much more on the food side. Some year's we had so many 42 players, Mom and Dad would have three card tables going with dominoes. Finally I was old enough to learn how to play 42 and everyone else was so old, they either stopped coming to the partys, or didn't care to play. So they just sat and talked. Those were the days. No color TV or satellites, no cell phones or Ipods. No computers and really nothing electronic. But we did have a party line on our phone. I guess a lot of youngsters don't know what a party line is. We listened to AM and the new FM radio. We had a Hi-Fi to play records on........in a wooden cabinet. I still have that cabinet. We turned it into a toy box when Luke was little.

Stop back later to see what my plans for the New Year are.
hugs, Brandi

Gone But Not Forgotten

I got in contact with my 401k plan administers and they sent me the forms for a hardship withdrawal. While waiting for the paperwork, Rebecca talked me into keeping Mom's wishes of being buried at Brookside where she and Dad bought 4 burial plots back in 1959. I made an appointment to get Mom a pre-paid funeral plan there. On the Wednesday morning that Christina and I were going to Brookside Funeral home, my truck started hesitating when I went to pass a log truck. I made it to Christina's house and parked the truck. We went on to the funeral home in her truck and picked out a nice service for Mom. But they wanted 10% down to start the process. We left and picked up a fuel filter for my truck. My truck started normally after the filter change, but it soon died and would not start again. I called AAA to hire a wrecker to haul me and my truck to the repair garage. I really wanted to get home and to bed, as it was noon and I wanted to get as many hours sleep as possible for work that night. Finally the wrecker arrived. The young wrecker driver couldn't believe I was an Aircraft Mechanic, much less that I had changed the fuel filter by myself. I told the service manager what was happening and they rented me a wore out Jeep Grand Cherokee for $35 a day. While I was putting my misc. commuting essentials in the Jeep from my truck, I got a call from the Chaplain of the nursing home.

He told me my Mother passed on at 1:20. It was November 19th. I went numb. I called Christina and she told me to drive home slowly. I called Rebecca on the way home and told her Mom was gone. She said she was packing to come home then. I was so relieved to hear that. But I had to concentrate on driving the Jeep as it was wondering all over the road and the rear end sounded like it was going to come apart.

I was so numb, I didn't know what to do. Cristina came over and stayed the evening. Rebecca got home around 11 that night. My cell phone and home phone were ringing off their hooks. I had a message from the funeral home stating we had another appointment at 2 the next afternoon. Then we found out why pre paid funeral plans are worth it. Instead of the $10,300 dollar funeral we picked out, I needed to get $11,403 to bury Mom and there would be no burial service until the funeral home was paid. This just one day after a prepaid quote! I inquired about having the service in the Chapel of the Chimes out in the middle of the cemetery and asked to see it.

It is breath taking for me to look at. This Chapel is just gorgeous. It started life as a church in downtown Houston. In 1905, they tore it down and rebuilt it in the cemetery. Meanwhile, I had a call informing me my truck's fuel pump went out and now it had to have a new assembly of both pumps in the fuel tank. That sat me back $1600 that I was not planning on spending. The next morning, Friday, Rebecca and I went to Mom and Dad's bank and got the loan I needed until my 401k disbursed funds in 2-3 weeks. Then we went to my bank to get a credit denial letter for a loan so my 401k plan would disperse. I think back now and have always gotten credit denial letters from my bank, Wells Fargo, yet Mom and Dad's bank gave a $5,000 loan back in June to get Mom into the nursing home and now they granted me another loan, for $11,403. Wow......I told Dad's banker I will change my bank to Chase and bring both my kids after all this is over. I needed some solitude, so I got some tractor therapy that afternoon.

I took about 3 hours burning 3 large brush piles. In between tending the fires with the Big RED Beast, I started digging a large pine stump that was always in my way while digging bank sand out of the gully. Christina came back over and gave me moral support while getting my tractor therapy. That evening my long time friend, Sara Rook, took us all out for dinner. She stayed to midnight when I drove my Mahindra out to "condense" the fires. I needed to deploy the 511's thumb to re stack logs on the fire. My canopy lights do not illuminate out to the sides as far as my backhoe can swing, so Christina came along and spotted logs for me to pick up with a flash light. It was getting cold, so being close to the fires while adding large logs and stumps and limbs felt good. Saturday morning, I got to sleep late, then Rebecca, Christina and I went dress shopping for something worthy for Mom to wear for her services. It blew me away when we were at the resale shop and Rebecca found a beautiful dress and the owner said it was only a dollar. It had a stain down low, but would be fine for this occasion! Finally, a small break!

The rest of the weekend was a blur. Monday found us getting ready to get Dad and go to the funeral home for the viewing and to meet friends and family. After 2 hours, Dad stated he was ready to leave. So I stayed and Rebecca drove Dad back to the nursing home, then returned. Since Mom was the youngest and last to pass on of her family, there was only one aunt (Mom's sister-in-law) alive and she attended with her son, daughter and grand daughter. Before they arrived, my friends Albert and Tim were keeping me, my other friends, and two cousins laughing in stitches about his family's chaotic get together's. The evening passed way too quickly as flowers and plants arrived. Soon it was time to say goodnight.

Tuesday I had planned to get Dad early for Mom's 2 o'clock service. Dad was almost finished dressing with the help of his nurse and an aide when we arrived. Dad kept looking for stuff after he dressed, but would not tell us what it was. We kept trying to get him to go with us. We finally got him to the door, only to have him get sick and throw up. We changed his shirt and tie, but didn't have a change of dress pants. He threw up again just as we were getting to the cemetery. And again while leaving the Chapel and going to the grave site. Poor Dad had to sit through both services with a small blanket from my truck on his lap. He can not hear well and lost his hearing aid in the nursing home, so Rebecca repeated what his pastor said during the service. Bless his heart. I cried all the way through the service. Thank God for Rebecca and Luke. They attended to Dad and his wheelchair, while Christina made sure I didn't do anything stupid from just being numb. The services were a blur and we were headed home. Rebecca rode back with Luke and they took all the plants home, while Christina and I took Dad back to the nursing home.

When we got back home, I was just a zombie. I kept hearing Rebecca and Christina tell me to eat. Dad's church brought over a feast of food and deserts. I didn't know where to start.

The next day, the day before Thanksgiving, I started making candy and Yum Yum Salad. Thursday I cooked while Rebecca went to get Dad. I was watching the local turkey day parade, in Houston, and cried when I heard a marching band play White Christmas! Christina arrived and helped me set the table. My brother and his wife came over. Rebecca and Dad arrived, but Dad would not get out of the truck. Everyone but I was out in the driveway trying to talk Dad into coming in for dinner. I went out and saw that Dad was pale. He said he wasn't feeling good. I told everyone I was taking Dad home and to go ahead and eat. I knew Luke had to go to work at 4 and Christina at 5. Christina drove while I sat in the back seat of my truck. I had lost it again, crying, in the house while grabbing my purse and keys. After we got Dad back to his room and in bed, we left. I called his nurse to ask her to check on Dad again. He said he just did and that he checked his blood sugar count and it hit 210. This was about 90 over what he called normal for Dad. No wonder Dad didn't feel good! Needless to say, I ate Thanksgiving dinner alone right at dusk!

This last weekend, I replaced the brake pads on Rebecca's truck. I used the loader bucket of the 6520 as a large floor jack and raised Rebecca's truck with my loader bucket under the trailer hitch. Then we put up the lighted cross on the barn and added roof outline lighting.

I have added a few more photos. You can view them here. I plan on adding more around the barn frame work and maybe down the ridge. Stop back later to see how I did the lights.

hugs, Brandi

Mom

Monday, November 3rd, I woke up to a phone call from the nursing home's social worker. She explained Mom had not been eating and told me that we had two choices. One was hospice care and the other was a feeding tube. I, being awoke from a deep sleep, said feeding tube and hung up and dozed off. Then another call came from a nurse explaining I needed to sign some papers the feeding tube procedure. I could come in the next morning to sign. Since I took off work being sick Monday evening, I had to get up and drive down to The Woodlands to sign the papers. Before I left, another call came in. The nurse explained they were calling for an ambulance to take Mom to the hospital. I went back to bed. That evening I got up early and called the hospital to find out what room Mom was in. I was told she was still in the emergency room. I was concerned. I got ready for work early and drove to the emergency room to find Mom kind of delirious. She was kind of chanting and hollering. I calmed her down and went to find a nurse. The nurse informed me they were waiting for an ICU room to open up. Mom's kidneys were shutting down. I called Christina and she came to meet me and Mom. The nurse explained it all again when Christina arrived and stated that we needed to start thinking care and comfort. I felt bad enough now not to go to work. I called in work and told them my Mom was dying. I barely could finish saying that sentence because I was crying so hard. They gave me emergency leave. We stayed with Mom awhile until she was given a sedative and went to sleep. The next morning we went back early enough and waited for the doctor. He said Mom went into septic shock and her kidneys were failing, but they saved her in time and her kidneys would be fine and mentioned long term hospital care after a feeding tube was installed.

Two days later while visiting Mom in ICU, the nurse talked to me and explained that dementia patients have several plateaus and all functions drop between each plateau. What we have been seeing the last few weeks was one of those plateaus. She said Mom would not be getting better and that the family needed to think about just comfort and care. I talked to the nursing home and made arrangements for Dad to come visit Mom, if the worst happened quickly. The nursing home van brought Dad over one afternoon while I slept. I was still recovering from that sinus cold and needed all the rest I could get. Christina was there when Dad arrived. Dad said sweet nothings to his bride of over 59 years. He kissed her all over her face and said "Hi Honey Bunny". Christina said Dad stayed an hour. Way longer then I thought he would. The next day Mom's doctor called (woke me up again) and said to think of just comfort and care for Mom and stated she would be going back to the nursing home. Good I thought. That way Dad could see Mom more. I was surprised to find Mom was back in the same room with Dad. Glory be, thank you Lord for letting Mom be with Dad now.

I decided to get organized with the funeral home. Mom and Dad have 4 plots down in Houston at Brookside Cemetery. Dad bought these in Feb. 1959 for $415 for all four plots. They are now selling for $3995 each, in the immediate area of their plots. Months ago I took Mom and Dad by the local funeral home and cemetery. I asked them if they would like to be buried up here instead of down in Houston and both said Yes. So I was going to sale these 4 plots, but the bad economy has hampered this endeavor. Instead I talked the funeral homes into swapping 2 plots for 2 plots. I also tried to get them to take the third and fourth plots in trade for credit on Mom's funeral expenses. They won't do that. So now I need to find an outlet to borrow about $11,000 for funeral and burial costs. Just to have a simple service at the funeral home costs $7100. Then add a casket and a outer burial container (concrete vault) starting at $595 and $895. All this doesn't include opening and closing the grave, which is another $1200-1400 dollars. This is all above the cost of those 4 plots Dad paid $415 for. So they got you good dollar wise, unless you have an extra acre you are wanting to turn into your own private cemetery.

I plan on calling my 401k plan to see if I can take a catastrophic withdrawal to pay for Mom's funeral and maybe start a pre plan for Dad. Dad is doing well and alert. He has been watching Fox news each time we visit. He is eating hearty and keeps requesting ice cream cones.

This last week Booger was caught by the dog catcher running down the street. Seems his girlfriend up the street is in heat again. The law here in Montgomery County states dogs may run loose in yards, but not in streets. I was lucky that the animal control officer didn't fine me. So for now Booger is in "doggie" jail while hooked onto a cable run that goes across the back yard. I guess I need to take him to the Vet to get fixed. Then maybe he will stop his street side wanderings. Friday morning I came home to see Booger running across the yard chasing a squirrel. Seems his collar broke. Christina had bought him a new RED collar to match everything else that is RED around here! So for now Booger is running around with a RED collar.

The only time I got near the Big RED Beast was yesterday morning. I woke up earlier then planned to visit funeral homes, so I decided it would be a good time to take the lawn mower trailer to Top Flight. I had to crank the 6520 up to raise her loader, so I could pull the trailer out of the barn. I really needed to grade the driveway again after the last heavy rain shower. But Sunday I slept in late and really didn't do anything outside. It was down to 50 degrees and I just decided to be lazy and a couch potato before cleaning up to visit Mom and Dad.

So stop back later to see if Booger gets into more mischief.

Oh yeah, Sneaky learned how to climb into my laundry hamper. Check out his new bachelor pad here!

hugs, Brandi

Back in Class

I mentioned in my last post that my Dad's baby brother and his wife came down to visit Mom and Dad. They stayed the night out by my barn in their RV. We got in two visits with Mom and Dad while they were here. Dad was still in the hospital and pretty out of it, but Uncle Carlos and Dad reminisced about the good old days and all their horses. One new name came up of a horse of Dad's I never heard before. The name of the horse was Grip. Nothing else about this horse was said, but I wonder what this horse did to get that name. When Uncle Carlos and Aunt Wanda left, we took photos and Aunt Wanda wanted to have a photo with this tree.

Years ago when I bought this place, Dad named the tree the "Saddle Tree". The name has stuck till this day. I guess it could also be called a swing tree, as a kid's swing would work well here. But then again, a tree house would go well in it also. This is the tree I used to straighten my backhoe's curl cylinder line on last year.

We also visited Mom in the nursing home. She isn't talking much and when she does, you really have to lean over and listen, as she is talking almost in a whisper. Monday morning we got to visit Mom as she was waiting to eat lunch. She was in the dining room in her wheelchair. She had her seat belt on and didn't have enough strength to keep her head up. She was just slumped over with her forehead on the armrest. It is a scene I don't want to see again. I didn't like seeing my Mom like this. Needless to say my eyes were leaking. We left rather quickly so I could get a nap before work that night while Uncle Carlos and Aunt Wanda got back on the road headed for Louisana.

The following Friday I purchased two small trailer fenders at Tractor Supply Co. in Conroe. I also bought two pieces of metal. I carried these items over to my favorite welding shop. He cut and tack welded the metal to the fenders to create a "wheel well". This will give me a larger area to secure the fenders to the trailer's side boards. I used the Big RED Beast's loader as a power floor jack after hitching the trailer to my truck. It is sweet to not have to drag a jack out. I primed and painted the fenders and screwed them on. At first I went with flat black paint, like the frame, but added two coats of gloss black. Now, I just need to take it down to Top Flight so they can sell it for me. I made the trailer to haul my mower over to Mom and Dad's house to mow their lawn. Now that lawn is overgrown and my brother doesn't care.

I received an insurance check from Dad's home owner's insurance company for Hurricane Ike damage. I tried to get Chase bank to endorse it, but they said I needed to pay 4 past due home equity loan payments first. I told them I wanted to do that with the insurance check and that I would do the repairs myself. They closed door after door in my face. Now I see on television that Chase will fore go foreclosures for 90 days. If that is the case, I might have time to get my attorney to proceed with another eviction hearing to evict my brother so I can sell the house and pay off Mom and Dad's bills. I will find out tomorrow. I had to threaten Chase with legal action to get them to review Dad's power of attorney (POA). One lady from Chase told me they were not suppose to talk to me, only my brother. I told this lady to have her legal department review the POA. Later that day, Chase called me back and told me they found the POA. So wish me luck.

The Sunday my aunt and uncle came to visit, I had planned on taking my two ferrets over to Christina's so I could set off flea and roach bombs. I didn't get to do it then and last Sunday, I took off for Dallas and basic sheetmetal training. I have been doing sheetmetal for thir....well, never mind how many years. After all these years doing sheetmetal, I finally got formal training! I saw the instructor I had last April for taxi and run up class, the last day of the class. He laughed when I told him I was up for the sheetmetal class. Then he added, "Your here for a week of vacation!" Which would be basically true. I have been doing all the things they were teaching us for well, a lot of years! But every class I attend I learn important stuff that keeps the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) out of my hair. With all the FAA house cleaning, if we have a wrong number on our paperwork, we can get fined and are open to having our mechanic's license suspended or revoked. When a pilot has a lightning strike on his plane, he puts it in the log book and puts in the Airline Transport Association (ATA) number code. This code number just gives a general idea where on the aircraft it is located. If we sign off our repairs and put in the wrong ATA code, we are liable for FAA punishment. Seems we have all new young inspectors that are out to make a name for themselves and literally if we don't cross our T's and dot our I's, we can get fined. So (recurrent) training is always a good thing. We had class in the mornings and the afternoons in the sheetmetal shop between the hangars.

While doing our shop class projects we had the view above from the sheetmetal shop. The plane in the photo is in for major overhaul and has it's vertical fin removed. It really is a strange sight, as one doesn't see this very often. The weather in Dallas was very crisp and the air was dry. Very low humidity caused my hair to carry a lot of static. I think my Mahindra tractor jacket contributed to the static as part of the jacket's lining is nylon. So I carried a brush and a bottle of hair spray to tame the stray hairs. Since the class was only 8 hours and my usual shift is 10 hours with about 2 and one half hours for travelling to and from, it really did seem like a vacation as the hotel is only 10 minutes away. I brought my PC with me and plugged into the hotel's ether net. Wow, talk about fast computer speeds! I really need to upgrade from my dial up modem.

Like last April, when I spent a week in Dallas for training, I brought a sinus cold home with me. The first few days in Dallas had winds up to 25 miles per hour. So yesterday I was lucky enough to see my doctor on a Saturday morning. Yes, Saturday morning. He gave me the usual prescriptions for pills and cough syrup, along with a steriod shot. He also talked me into getting a flu shot. I have never had a flu shot,but used to get the flu. Since I have been getting sinus colds and nasal infections, the flu has left me alone. So we will see how that goes. With the heavy acorn crop this year, it looks to be a hard winter here. Anyway, I have been couped up in the house for two days with a congested head and a runny nose. I got to feeling better this afternoon and ventured outside. I decided to plug the battery charger into the 6520. That is all I felt like doing. Sigh. It would have been a perfect weekend to burn my three large brush piles. But that will have to wait a few weeks longer. Next weekend we are headed to the Frio River and Leakey Texas to see Sara's daughter get married. It will be a nice trip as Leakey is in the Hill Country west of San Antonio and the weather is suppose to be great for a road trip.

Mom and Dad are hanging in there. I have not been able to see them since last Sunday, but I talked to them today and told them I didn't want to get them sick. So I will see them in a day or two and above all, I told them I love them. Check back in a week or so to see what all happens at the wedding. I uploaded a handful of photos here.

hugs, Brandi

A Broken Hip and a Lump

My Mom fell a few weeks ago and was complaining about her hip hurting. X-rays showed a broken hip. Two days later the surgeon pinned the hip. She went back to the nursing home, where a few days later she collapsed during church service. Back to the hospital. All tests came back negative, but a review of the Cat Scan done when they found her broken hip, revealed a lump in her left kidney. I conferred with the specialist the next day and was told it might have been there for years. Because of Mom's advanced age, he wants to wait 3 months and take an another Cat Scan. He stated kidney cancer grows real slow. Which didn't comfort me much. Anyway, he stated any biopsy could be more invasive for Mom since she is just recovering from hip surgery. So we wait and pray.
In the mean time, we traveled on the 4th and 11th to Josephine's house in Baytown, Texas to help clean up the mess Hurricane Ike left in her yard.

It was the longest I ever pulled the Big RED Beast. She lives about 80 miles from me and the Cummins in my Dodge sucked the diesel. I didn't mind travelling two Saturdays in a row, but pulling 13,700 pounds in Houston traffic was not fun. I can get going 60 or even 65 miles per hour very easy, but I needed a lot of stopping distance and Houston drivers kept filling in the distance I left between the car ahead of me and my truck. So it was really hard to find a steady speed. I spread the cleanup work at Josephine's over two Saturdays, because I just couldn't do two days in a row after doing it at Sara's house the end of Sept. I needed a day of rest for the new week!
Josephine lives at the back of a cigar shaped acre size lot. We couldn't pile the debris and burn it, so we had about a 400 feet drive to the roadside (bar) ditch, where we piled the debris for county workers to pick up. This took a lot of time on the Big RED Beast going back and forth. It also allowed some limbs to fall by the way side. Josephine has a heart condition and drives one of those electric 4 wheel scooters. She was either on the scooter or on her lawn tractor zipping back and forth picking up the limbs.
Sara showed up wearing long sleeves. I thought that was odd, as she usually works outside in her work coveralls. I soon learned why she had on long sleeves. Every tree in the yard had large vines of poison sumac or ivy. I didn't get any on me, but Sara ran the saw all day and got in way too much contact with those dad blasted vines. Josephine is not allergic to the vines, so she made no effort to remove them over the years. Guess she thinks the flowers look pretty also!

Josephine's property doesn't have a border fence, but just a 4 foot tall chain link fence around a small "yard" around the house for her, at the time, spouse's dog. Make that ex spouse now. This chain link fence also had poison sumac and ivy vines all over it. I didn't touch the fence except with the 511 backhoe on the Mahindra. I found it easy (after Josephine snipped all the wires at the posts) to pull the fence in with the backhoe and stacked it directly behind the backhoe. Then I grabbed the fence "stack" with the thumb and bucket and off to the bar ditch. Funny thing with that fence out by the ditch. It didn't last long as a local character came up with his old beat up pickup and hooked a chain to the fence and off he went down the street to his house, sparks a flying.

At first it was fun working the 6520 back and forth, but by the second Saturday, it started to be like work. Sara was having way too much fun with her new "man sized" large Stihl chain saw and cut too many times on the big logs. I wanted to drag the whole tree, minus it's top out to the ditch and cut it up. Sara got "saw happy" and cut the tree trunks into 6 or so feet long pieces. With no grapple, it was no fun getting more than one trunk section into my 7 foot wide front end bucket. This meant I could only haul 2 large diameter"logs" to the ditch. One in the bucket and one pinched with the backhoe bucket and thumb. Towards the end of the second day I was ready to quit, but Sara and even Josephine got "saw happy" and they started cutting green trees down. Whoa! I only wanted to clean up the mess on the ground and go home. They were adding more work for the Big RED Beast.

The first Saturday, we attacked the most serious problem. A large diameter Beech tree was uprooted and leaning on the fork of another tree with the Beech's top hanging over Josephine's house. Another big wind and it would have crushed the house. I felt the pressure on me and my Mahindra. Luckily, Josephine's nephew was there with a 28 foot ladder and topped the tree. He cut all the large limbs at the top of his ladder. Then I got to dig the tree up at the roots with the Mahindra's 511 backhoe. When the roots where loose, we attached a chain to the loader's cross bar and I lifted while slowly backing up. This caused the tree to slide down the supporting tree right to the ground. I was sweating hard as I did this, as one slip from me or the 6520 and the tree would get the house!

About mid way through the day, a nice black Dodge pulling a trailer with a thumbed mini excavator on it, stopped in the street. They unloaded and started working across the street. These guys were from the Ft. Worth area down here doing storm cleanup. They left after a few hours. Later I saw Sara walking back with her saw and numerous small pieces of cedar. I went over to the pile they made and saw a large cedar log sticking out. I immediately pulled the log out with my 511 backhoe. It looked to be about 20 feet long. Needless to say, that log came home with me after trimming it down a little so it fit under the Mahindra on the trailer, for the ride home. If only the other log was that long, I would have two entry gate poles for my place!

Between the two Saturdays spent in Baytown, I had enough time to do my 300 hour inspection on the Big RED Beast. As you can see in the photo below, Booger is always near when I have the Mahindra out of the barn. He is laying just at the bottom of the photo, near the front tire and engine side panel. He doesn't do this while I am on my Hustler lawn mower, but comes running when I head for the 6520.

I have been trying to get Dad's log splitter running so I could sell it. Dad let it sit up too long and the carburetor got gummed up. I tried cleaning it, but that didn't work. I took it to Top Flight Equipment, to let their small engine expert have a go at it. But they were too busy and I brought it back home the day before Ike hit the Texas coast. Two weeks ago I decided to just order a new carburetor. The engine started on the second pull. Now the log slicer, as Mom always called it, is sitting at Top Flight by the parts and service front door, waiting to be sold.

Yesterday I mowed my whole place with my Hustler Fastrac. Since we had two days of rain last week, I had some standing water in the ditch that runs through my place. The Fastrac is notorious for getting "slip stuck" with it's almost smooth turf tires. Once one drive wheel spins, it is all over. Go get the Big RED Beast! I had to do that twice yesterday! The second time, Booger saw me walking away from the mower towards the Mahindra and came running. That dog sure loves my tractor!

While I was cleaning up last night, the nursing home called to say Dad fell and was going to the emergency room. I called Christina and we both went to see what happened. Seems Dad fell while trying to get out of bed and hit and cut his forehead. He had been complaining last weekend to me about his back hurting when he yawned in bed. I told the doctor this and they ran a cat scan and took x-rays. The results were a fracture in his back at T-12. He is now waiting to get fitted with a back brace. So with Mom's hospital visits and now Dad's, I am getting to know my way around the hospital in The Woodlands! I have been on three different floors visiting them in the last three weeks. If only I could get them in the same room at the same time. With me working nights, I only have time in the evening to see one of them if one is in the hospital. So I pray they can both stay healthy enough to stay together!

As luck would have it, Dad's baby brother (He is 81) and his wife came down in their 30 foot RV today from Oklahoma to visit Dad. My uncle still runs the building supply (we call them lumber yards down here) company he founded eons ago. But he goes home for lunch every day and takes a nap. The yard is closed while he naps! I'll try to get some photos of the RV and them when they leave tomorrow. They are headed for Louisiana. Stop back in later to hear more about us here. I have added more storm damage and Big RED Beast photos here.

hugs, Brandi

Ike....Yikes!

I love thunder storms. I love to hear the thunder and lighting and rain hitting my metal roof. I don't like tornadoes or hurricanes. Hurricane Ike hit the upper Texas coast on Sept 13th. I took off Thursday night, 9-11, to prepare and not get caught in the traffic jams like so many Texans did during Hurricane Rita 3 years ago. Since I work 62 miles south of here, I didn't want to get stuck in Houston on the interstate. By Friday afternoon, I was ready for Ike. So was everybody else as the grocery stores were out of any kind of "fast" food. Chips and any bottled beverage, paper towels, plates and cups, along with toilet paper, tape, and anything else one might need in the next few weeks. I admit one thing I forgot was to buy more dog food. But Booger's food supply never suffered! In between buying everything I could think of, I ran the Big RED Beast around the yard and barn to pick up anything that wasn't nailed down and secure it in the barn or work shop. This went double for the large sawmill blades I have bordering the driveway.


Since Luke and I were going to ride out the storm at Christina's house, I loaded up my chain saw, gas and oil, along with extension cords and extra diesel for the generator. The biggest thing to move was Rascal's old ferret cage. It is large enough for two ferrets, but small enough to carry by one person. I think I had everything packed and on the road around 4 on Friday afternoon. Luke came over about 7. Just after 9, we lost power and the winds were hardly over 10 miles an hour! We powered up the loud diesel generator and powered the refrigerator, microwave oven, one fan and the all important big screen TV and satellite box. Oh yeah, we had one lamp in the windowless bathroom.


We went to bed around midnight. I slept until 4:30. At that time I started hearing freight trains and really got scared. So we got up and ate a very early breakfast. We didn't have much wind at all. But at one point, I didn't dare open the front door. By daylight it was all over except for the rain. It rained all day. But the damage was done.






We had to wait until the afternoon to drive home to check my place out. Too many trees blocking the road and I didn't feel like cutting wet trees that could have "hot" power wires among it. By the time the rain slowed to a drizzle, the road was clear, thinks to all the country boys in their tall 4WD trucks and 4 wheelers. I couldn't wait to get home and get the Big RED Beast out. I had one large Pine tree blocking my driveway. We parked in the street. I had one elm tree on my roof over my bedroom. I cut the pine and pushed the top out of the way to clear the driveway. Then I drove the 6520 across the front yard to use the Mahindra's loader bucket as a work platform while attacking the elm tree on the roof. But I changed my mind when all 4 tires started sinking. I got out of the yard real quick and cut the elm up the old fashion way, with a ladder. The elm was dispatched without me falling off the roof. I was concerned about falling as the roof was slick and I was wearing rubber boots and yellow rain suit.


Sunday brought clear skies as we drove home. It took a while to get the generator on the ground and chained. I tried to power my central air conditioner with the 240 volt plug, but that was a no go. We ran 6 extension cords to the house I borrowed the window air conditioner from my work shop to cool my bedroom. We powered two window A/Cs and two fans to push the air. We had to kill one A/C to power the TV. But a few days later I tweaked the rpm up on the generator and had enough power for short use of my computer. We had lost power at home around 3 A.M. Sat. morning. That also meant no water. But I had a 55 gallon drum strapped to the deck for non drinking water and around 15 gallons of drinking water. We were out of water for 6 days and electricity was restored after 8 days.


The Monday after the storm I drove over to Sara's house near Dayton and spent the day cutting trees up. I came home from her house with 15 gallons of bio diesel, sorely needed for the generator. The European diesel never missed a beat on the bio diesel. I was off work almost all week as Southwest had the hangar shut down for 6 nights. I worked one night that week. Then the fun began. I dragged the pine top to the burn pile, but it was almost too heavy (and big), so I extended the backhoe, lifted the trunk of the pine top with the Mahindra's loader and drug it backwards. I could not turn, but could lower the pine top and then turn.






Saturday afternoon, Sara came over with her new Stihl 360 chain saw. Funny thing, the dealer didn't show her how to start it. Finally, we got it fired up and now she knows how to start it. She was cutting and I was dragging or hauling logs and limbs with the 6520's loader and backhoe thumb. I gotta say, after two days of seat time, I was tired!







Saturday morning, the 27th, we were planning on taking the Big RED Beast to Sara's house to help with the stumps and logs, which were large. I thought maybe 4 or 5 hours work at her house. Friday evening I noticed the left rear tire on the 6520 was flat. It was a slow leak, as it had sat all week. I had the front left tire patched the week before from two nail holes two inches apart. I limped the Mahindra out of the barn and positioned her to remove the tire and lift the tire with the backhoe onto the trailer. We rushed to town after dark to inflate the tire. $1.50 later we had 22 psi in it. Saturday morning it was down to 14 psi, so I rushed it to the tire repair shop. They couldn't find the leak and I told them to inflate it to 35 psi, which is the bead setting pressure. It was easy to load and unload the tire on the trailer with the Mahindra's 511 backhoe . Then I used the backhoe and stabilizers to position the axle the right height to mount the tire. Think hydraulic jack and you get the picture. No Popeye muscles needed with a backhoe.

The large Oak stump in Sara's back yard had water around it, which meant mud and suction. The stump beat us on day one.

But we finally won and on day two, we got the rootball out and over to the burn pile.

We stayed at Sara's house Saturday night and left at 5 P.M. on Sunday. Saturday after dark, I used the canopy loader and backhoe lights, I added, to move firewood up for cutting. I did this past 9 P. M. Picking up firewood and logs is a breeze with the Mahindra backhoe's thumb. I didn't have more lights on as the mosquitoes were mean, numerous, and large and looking for anything warm. We finished dragging all the straight logs up for firewood and all the bent or crooked logs were piled on the burn pile. I have added a lot of photos of the last two weekends trials and tribulations here.

Next weekend we are off to Baytown and my other close friend's devastated yard. So the Big RED Beast gets a ride through Houston. Stop in later to hear more Ike recovery stories!

hugs, Brandi

Poison Ivy

Labor day weekend had me out in the yard weed-eating my weeds. It is only the 2nd time I had done it all summer. So the weeds were thick. It took most of Friday to weed-eat and trim the larger vines around all the trees. On Saturday I took my backhoe off of the Big RED Beast and mounted the 3 point hitch arms. Then the brush hog gets hooked up and adjusted. Finally the gearbox is serviced. I mowed all the edges of the gully and a lot more brushy areas. I also mowed over at Von and Lori's down their high line easement. While mowing my gully, I kept watching for Christina. She was mowing the yard on my Hustler Fastrac and it was her first time. By the end of the day, I was covered in dirt and Christina with a smile on her face. The smile really stood out, as she had dirt all over her face also. The smile was from having so much fun on the zero turn mower. The dirt just another indication we needed rain. Which came a week later. Anyway, we had the place looking park like. The day after we celebrated Mom and Dad's birthday, I noticed I was itching. Yep, it was poison ivy. I didn't wait around for the poison ivy to leave on it's on. I got a cortisone shot as a big storm was coming into the Gulf of Mexico. Yep, Hurricane Ike is on track for the upper Texas coast.

I know this is a short post, but the approaching storm has all us running around like chickens with their heads cut off getting ready. So stop back later to hear how we faired.

hugs, Brandi

Now it rains!

Just as I got feeling better and back to work, our dry spell came to an end. I was looking forward to getting back on the Big Red Beast and working the rust off her buckets. I was walking outside to crank her up and it started raining. I haven't had any serious time on the Mahindra since some time back in June. That is just too long. I was really chanting, "Rain, rain, go away, come again another day!" Rust on the buckets, spider webs hanging from the canopy. Gosh, she sure looks forgotten! Speaking of rust on the bucket, I have had some pretty interesting feedback from guys online in tractor forums about front end loader buckets needing to be painted black. My 6520's bucket is red, just like the tractor. Some guys online get pretty huffy when I tell them I like my buckets shiny. Right now they are a long way from being painted red or shiny. I feel bad about the "rusty" look, but just about everything is back to normal now.

One thing that seems to be back to normal is my "plumbing". I felt fine and worked all week before the day of my colonoscopy. Then I had to prep for the colonoscopy. Wow, I really do not like that part. Waking up and hearing the Dr. say everything is normal was a big relief. He did say I needed to eat more fiber and take a fiber supplement. I tried the supplement in a glass of cool water. I had almost finished the whole glass until I let it sit awhile. I tipped the glass up for the last swallow or two and it moved like molasses! That's the last glass of supplement I have had!

I did get to shoot my new Ruger LCP. It is really a small gun. I can only get two of my small fingers on the grip. I like the way it barked when fired.

But I didn't care for the trigger "slapping" my finger after firing. It really got my attention. The little .380 has a long trigger pull that cocks the hammer and fires it. I am used to short trigger pulls with my Kimber. I found myself watching the hammer come back to get ready for it falling and firing off the cartridge. Which I can see is not a good practice. My Ruger and Kimber differences are night and day in handling and in size. I will continue to carry my Kimber. I will use the little Ruger peep squeak pistol for special occasions. I hope to shoot it again soon, with my friends trying the Ruger out also.

Last weekend I managed to squeeze in the Big Red Beast's 250 hour inspection. Since the 6520 holds about the same amount of oil as the Cummins in my pickup, I thought my oil drain pan would hold the oil. What I didn't realize is the Cummins has a 1/2 inch drain opening and the Mahindra has about a 1inch drain opening. Before I knew what was happening, the oil overflowed the pan and into the dirt floor of the barn. Talk about a mess. If I was at work I would just throw down some kitty litter and sweep it up. But what do country folk use as kitty litter. Oh yeah....dirt. I threw some loose dirt on it, scooped it up and gave it to the trash can. I didn't want it to seep in the soil. I am starting to think more and more to do the "green" thing for our environment. Tomorrow I will be giving all her grease points a lube, then (weather permitting) going over to the neighbor's and finish what I started clearing way back last June.

Not much else going on right now. I have been getting back in the "groove" at work and have been getting more sheet metal assignments. Usually we have the plane finished in about 6 or 7 hours in our 10 hour shift, with 3 hours waiting (resting) around for quitting time. But when we have sheet metal cracks, it usually takes the whole shift and more. Thank God for day shift to give a turn over to.

Luke, Rebecca and I went went to the Astros game today at Minute Maid Park. Christina was planning on going with us, but got sick and didn't feel good enough to go. I used to take Luke and Rebecca to watch the Astros in the Astrodome and we would sit in the center field "cheap seats". Kids got in for $1. I got in for $5. What a bargain! Parking cost more at $8. Today, it was $50 a ticket and $15 for parking. My food and drink cost over $20! Luke keep saying we needed to be in the outfield seats. Guess he remembers the good old days too. We were lucky in that the Astros won over the St. Louis Cardinals by 3-0 and that the roof was kept closed with the air conditioners on. I was spoiled by the Astrodome and growing up watching baseball inside! Anyway, check out the photos I added here.

Hurricane Gustav will be coming ashore west of New Orleans. Guess we will see now if the levees hold back the Mississippi River and the storm surge. I pray they hold like designed. Just three years ago Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and that city still hasn't recovered. I still have reminders of Hurricane Rita, that followed Katrina. My giant hollow oak tree's trunk still stands as a reminder. I have left it standing for the red shouldered hawk family that lives in the area. I am not sure if they stay in my tree, but have heard they nest in hollow trees. With the rains we are expected to get from this storm, it may be a while longer before I can dig my pond. Oh well, there is always the barn to finish! Tomorrow is Labor Day and hopefully the rains will stay away long enough for me to remove the backhoe from the Big Red Beast and install the 3PH arms and hook up the brush hog. Then mow all my gully edges and rough overgrown areas. I usually do this once in the spring and once in the fall, but didn't get to this year as I was busy taking care of Mom and Dad. Stop back later to hear more from Brand, Booger, and the Big Red Beast.

hugs, Brandi