Reacquainted Relatives

Imagine my surprise upon getting a letter from my cousin. Well, second cousin. A cousin I haven't seen in about 24 years. That would have made him about 13 years old then. Now I was meeting a grown man! I was going to clean house before they arrive and make myself presentable , but have been resting and relaxing (spell that tractor seat time) for the weekend. My cousin, Clay and his partner, was suppose to come out Easter Sunday. I thought they would show up in the afternoon. So on Saturday I emailed him. I never got a response. Easter morning I got up at 10 and checked email. No reply from Clay. So I went back to bed. About 10:58 I heard a knock on the door and Luke stating, "Your cousin is here"! Talk about having egg on my face. First time I meet my cousin in 24 years and I am wearing a bath robe! Gosh, can it get any worse? It didn't. We talked for hours and went out to eat. We decided on Chili's. We both had baby back ribs. It was a good first (again) meeting. I learned some neat stuff about his Mom, Jackie. She used to stay with us for weeks at a time when we were little. Talking about her brought back fond memories.

I had all this typed and saved, I thought. I just rewrote it as we had a power failure and when I started typing tonight..........I found nothing I had wrote a week ago. Oh well, onward and upward!

I got over Mom and Dad's house on Good Friday to mow. When I got there, I saw I had my brother's mess to clean up. He seems to think the house is his to do as he pleases, so he trashes the yard up. I never have figured that one out. Anyway, between this trash and picking up the limbs that fell this winter, I made a nice fire on the stump I dug up last August with the Big Red Beast. You can check out photos of this huge stump on my photo page here. Check out 8-5-07 on page 6. Look at the photo titled Profile Stump vs. Big Red Beast and you can get an idea of what I have been burning. Anyway, it took several hours to clean up the yard and mow the grass. When I got home I had enough daylight left to mow the yard. Saturday morning I finished mowing the "pasture". It wasn't quite dry in the low areas, so I had the Big Red Beast stand by for towing duty while I mowed. I got stuck three times and needed a tow from the Mahindra.

I thought it was suppose to rain all weekend the last of March. Imagine my amusement when I lite the burn pile thinking it would rain later in the day and not a drop fell all weekend. I almost got the pile burned all up. I went out at 2 this morning and condensed it with the 6520's loader bucket. Then I went to bed. Around noon I went back out and used the 511 backhoe and thumb to stack partially burnt logs and stumps up into a pile. It is kind of like stacking building blocks, but really big burning blocks. After that all is a blur because, well, I am embarrassed to say this, but I got the Big Red Beast stuck up to her axles. Between the backhoe and loader and my two good neighbors, Lori and Von, we got the 6520 out of the mud after two hours of hard labor. We ran out of boards, so we cut up small trees into 2 foot lengths and use them under the tires. After we got the Mahindra out of the mud, I realized I had the camera hanging from the ROPS under the canopy and didn't even think to get a photo of the stuck Beast. I only got a photo of the "sink hole" after the fact! After they helped me get the 6520 out of the mud, Von and Lori went back to their fence building. While I was washing the Big Red Beast off, they turned their horses out on their entirely wooded acreage. The horses went straight to grazing on the the hi-line by my driveway. Talk about a beautiful sight!

After I ate a late lunch, I planned on greasing the Mahindra. But my brother came over to introduce his new wife to us. Mom came along. Then I found out they want to get my blessing so they can move into Mom and Dad's house to "take care" of them. As I have power of attorney for Mom and Dad, they are asking me also. Knowing my brother, I don't like it. But it would answer a short term prayer about Mom's care while I get Mom on Medicaid and into a nursing home. I will have to sleep on it and pray about it. I told them I need to talk to Dad about it. Mom seemed to like the idea. I talked with my friend, Josephine, and we talked about lawyer's and I mentioned something like a rental agreement. Josephine mentioned I should talk to an attorney about a legal agreement. I did recall my brother's new wife commenting about wanting to move in on the first of April, which is two days away. Now I am thinking.........why so fast? I will take my time and talk to my attorney before I answer them.

Booger isn't singing yet, but he has been up to mischief. Two weeks ago he caught a full grown cotton tail rabbit. Last weekend he got into the neighbor's yard behind me and caught a chicken. We took the chicken away from him before he could taste blood. Yesterday while on the Big Red Beast, I saw what looked like a mole in his mouth. I was curious, so I approached him and saw little ears sticking up. Booger had caught a baby rabbit. He hadn't hurt it yet, and let me take it from him. I bought the little furry rabbit into the house. It seen to be okay and hopped a little. I got the ferrets carrying cage out and added water and some fresh grass. When I was little I raised rabbits. The little guy seemed about the size of my litters when they just start eating. But I drove to town and bought some goat's milk for him (her?) and some KFC chicken for Luke and I. While waiting in the drive thru line, Luke called and said it was too late. I came home to a stiff little friend. I cried as I drove the Mahindra out into the pasture to dig a hole in the dark. Imagine, it was the first time to dig after dark with the new canopy work lights I installed last month. I will always remember this first time using them. They work well and I can actually see where I am digging. The little guy will always be remembered when I use those lights. Stop back later to hear more about Booger and I, along with the Big Red Beast.

hugs, Brandi