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Beau's Journey » 2008 » June

Archive: June, 2008

June 30, 2008: SWISH and June was gone…

  Well, that is it.  July is ALMOST here.  Soooooo, hazy – hot – humid?  I hope not.  Unfortunately, it will probably be just that.  When does winter begin?  🙂  I can almost hear Jason saying "not soon enough."  Another snow fan – for those who don’t already know that!

  Anyway, I will be patient.  Winter will be here soon enough (well, soon enough for most people).

  The last few days have been busy.  We have water at the farm now!  The well has been repaired and water once again flows.  In about six months we should have county water.  Hopefully.  We spent yesterday with family.  Tony celebrated his birthday!  We went to eat and then to see the new movie – Wall-E.  It was great.  I think everyone enjoyed the movie.   We also went to see Tommy and Dione’s new house.  This was the first time I have seen the inside of their new residence.  They have a beautiful house with a GREAT backyard.  Peaceful.  You can hear the wind blowing through their big Oak Tree in the back.  🙂  Very nice.

 


HAPPY BIRTHDAY TONY!

  I have been busy trying to become more organized around here.  There is TOOOOO much stuff.  It seems like "stuff" accumulates faster than a person can get rid of it.  Paper, mail, wires, more wires.  lol  So, once again I am going through everything and trying to "refine" the amount of stuff.  We shall see how this works out.

  David is leaving for Canada tomorrow morning.  I believe his flight is at 6 AM.  Too early for me!  He will be in Canada by early afternoon.

  Julie and Danny are in CANADA as well!  They took a road trip.  BIG road trip it appears.  They are spending the night at Niagara Falls and then moving on to Ohio tomorrow.  I believe that is their plans.

  Hopefully everyone has a safe trip.

  We went to Woodlawn Cemetary this afternoon.  We placed a flag on Robert Dodson Seniors gravestone.


I took this photograph of the Jesus statue.  Pretty clouds today.

  Other than that – homework, housework, farmwork, and everything else under the sun.  We sold one of our lots in Mayfield.  That means we have one lot left.  That is it.  Both houses have sold and one lot.  That leaves one more lot AND Ashcreek.  Sue needs to sell her place as well – so I will add that to the "wish would sell" list!

 

 

June 28, 2008: Farm…Solar…Happy Birthday Tony

  Happy Birthday Tony 🙂  Try not to party too hard today.  I know it is difficult being 40.  You are 40 today?  Right?  Wait…maybe you are younger than that.  Hard to keep up!  🙂

  We spent most of the day at the farm.  We went hunting for arrowheads, marked off some of the land (trying to figure out the footprint, got the well water running, and met with a guy from Evansville (Brad Morton) who installs solar energy.

  At this point we are definately getting a geothermal system, solar hot water, and perhaps a mixture of wind and solar energy.   We are not 100% sure yet.  Illinois is in the middle of deciding what their incentives will be for the new calendar year.  Last year they had a program that you could receive 30% off your solar energy installment.  Not sure what they will do this year.  Hopefully something though.

  We are looking into wind power.  See here.

  Here is a photograph of what the Skystream looks like in someones field/yard.  Not sure where this photo was taken.

 

 

 

June 27, 2008: Busy days…

  Well, life has certainly been interesting over the last few days.  Busy is the best word that I can find to describe everything.

  The fair is this week so there is a bit of weather watching to do.  We had some heavy thunderstorms in Paducah last night.  Strong winds and heavy rain – ton of lightning.  Not the best weather for the fair (at least last night).  More storms this afternoon and evening.  Just enough to keep me watching radar.  There is also the relay for life over in Livingston County, KY.  That is an all night event.

  HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT!  Temperatures have been in the nineties all week long.  Not a fan.  No pun intended.  I would rather have snow.  That is just me though.  🙂  It will cool off on Sunday through Tuesday.  I can live with that forecast!

  We met with Precision Audio this afternoon.  I had no idea that so much went into planning the electrical side of ummm electronics!  We are trying to figure out how to do the movie room.  They had a lot of ideas.  We will have to explore options. 

  Tomorrow is an important day.  We are meeting with a man from Evansville Indiana.  He installs solar panels, wind turbines, and solar hot water heaters.  We also are meeting one from the St Louis area.  That won’t be until next week.  I am excited about the prospects of having a portion of the electricity run by solar power.  🙂  We shall see how it turns out!

  David has been helping us a lot.  He can see things that we can not.  That is always helpful.  I think he is having a good time as well.  With his engineering mind – he likes projects.  He is at least helping to relieve a bit of the stress.

  We also met with Don, the architect, yesterday.  That meeting went extremely well.  He is doing an AMAZING job of pulling everything together.

  We have moved back to Ashcreek.  I think I mentioned that though.  Daisy is NOT happy at all.  Apparently she has decided that she does not like the hardwood floors.  I have no idea why.  This has not been a problem in the past.  She won’t walk on them.  She is totally freaked out.  She lived here for the first year of her life.  She was fine at that time.  Now – no go on the wood floors.  Won’t walk on them.  So if anyone has some ideas 🙂 please let me know!

  Daisy visited the farm, for the first time yesterday, and I guess she liked it.  The weather was hot – Pugs do not like hot weather.  She will live though!

  Everything is moving along – swiftly but orderly.  I hope to start a footer, up on the farm, by the end of July or August.  Hopefully!

  I am heading to Washington D.C., in the middle of July, for a weather conference.  Should be fun.

  Dione and Tommy have situated themselves at their new home.  I need to go visit!  It has been so busy lately.  Also, Deena and Tony think they have sold their home as well.  If that is true then I am not sure what they will do!  We also sold a lot – we have two for sale.  We have sold one – we also sold the last new house we built.  I told Sue last week that Joey buried this St Joseph statue in our front yard – supposed to help sell a house.  Every house has sold but ours.  I call it collateral blessings.  🙂 lol  Maybe this one will sell next – now if we can get Sue and Jack to sell theirs – we will be set.

  Here are some photos from Ashcreek – Daisy 🙂

Her island of refuge.


We took Daisy to the farm.  HER FIRST TIME OUT THERE.  This was her look when she got out of the car.  🙂

 

 


One of the fields near Round Knob.  Thought this was pretty – this farm adjoins ours.

 

 

June 24, 2008: Watching it all unfold…

  So we worked our butts off today at the farm.  I hauled off branches and did a lot of weed-eating.  LOT of weed eating!  Had fun though…I love to do work like that.  Can see the progress.

  David and Joey put together the generator.  That took awhile.  They got it running though! 

  Terry did some more landscaping and general cleanup.  The view is amazing now!!!!  I LOVE IT!  I am SOOOO EXCITED!  I guess that is easy to figure out though!

  Midterms tonight…radar!  HARD test.  Hoping to do well on it.

  We met with Don today – the architect.  He has some nice plans drawn up.  We are still working out the final details though.  It will take a few more weeks to get the footprint.  Hopefully soon though!

  We are moving tomorrow.  LOTS going on!!!!!  🙂 

  Dione, Mariah, and Tommy have moved into their new house.  They bought a house in Paducah.  I have not been there yet!  Hopefully this week.

  Here are some photos from today!  LOT of progress. 


Terry pushing dirt around and cleaning up debris.  He did an AMAZING job.

 


This is where my grandmothers house used to be.

 

 

 


DUSTY DAY!  HOT as well.  We were soaked by the time the day was over.

 


Grandmother’s old homestead.  You can see the old well to the right.

 


Joey putting together the generator.

 


David and Joey working on the generator.

 

 

June 24, 2008: Old Farm Maps…

  David has been digging around and he came across a couple of old maps for the farm.  One of the maps dates back to 1807 and the other map is from the mid 1880s.  There are some large swamps and ponds in the area.


This map was from 1837


Our farm should be somewhere near the 34.  That makes sense because to our east is on old lake and
swamp area.


The large lake/swamp back then to the west is clearly marked on the map.  At some point they must have
drained a lot of these areas.

 

June 23, 2008: First Sunset Since I Moved In 1988…

  This is the first sunset I have watched since I moved from the farm back in the 1980s.

 

 

 

 


That would be me 🙂

 


Looking southwest

 


Looking south/southwest

 


Looking south

 


Looking south/southeast

 


We saw this fire/smoke in the distance to the northwest.  Not sure what was burning

 


Some flowers of my grandmothers – we are going to save these and replant them.

 


Joey and David looking for arrowheads.

 

 

June 23, 2008: Let The Excavating Begin!

  Terry started on the excavating this morning.  He started around 6 AM.  He is trying to clear off the area we are going to build on.  He will come back later to help clean everything up and get it ready to plant grass and so on.  Tony, Joey, and I rode up together and David met us there.  It was a HOT morning and early afternoon. 

  🙂


Looking northward – nice day 🙂

 


Excavating begins!

 


The corn is looking nice and green 🙂

 

 


Tony working hard.  🙂

 

 

 

 

 

June 22, 2008: Warm day – midterms

  Mid-terms started today.  I have Climate and Radar this semester.  I went ahead and took the Climate Mid-Term.  It wasn’t toooooo hard.  It wasn’t easy either, though!  Hopefully I did well on the test.  I am not sure when I am taking radar.  It will be the harder of the two – or so I suspect!

  We begin escavating tomorrow at the farm.  Terry will be up there at 6 AM.  We will be going up with Tony and David around 8 AM.  I will definately take some photographs.  I am excited to move forward.  Lot of decisions in the coming weeks, though.

  We were hoping to meet with someone this week over the subject of solar power.  Still working on that subject.  We are moving back to Lone Oak on Wednesday.  I already have most of our stuff moved up there.  I have been moving it – slowly – over the last few days.  Dylan is going to help us on Wednesday morning.

  Thursday morning Comcast Cable is coming to turn the internet back on.  Can’t live without that!

 

June 22, 2008: Saturday…

"There are two kinds of people in the world: those who believe there are two kinds of people in the world, and those who don’t." – Robert Benchley, Benchley’s Law of Distinction

  Well, it was a long week.  Looks like a new week will start soon!  That is fine with me.  We have so much going on – time is moving along swiftly.  I managed to have lunch with Sue on Friday.   We talked forever – this was the day after we were able to catch Julie for dinner.  So a good week with eating out with friends.  I still need to catch up with John and a few others.

  Sue seems to be doing great.  Her photography is getting better and better.  Stunning is the best work for it.  I don’t think she realizes just how good she is!  I told her that I would be looking for her book at "Books A Million".

  We may get some thunderstorms on Sunday.  Unsure as to whether we will actually see some severe weather.  It is possible across portions of the area.

  Awaiting Jason to report in on his "solar fan".  I am actually excited to hear if it works well.  It is a ceiling fan.  🙂

 

June 21, 2008: So Tony got paid by Hillary…

  Well, I am shocked.  I really didn’t think Hillary would pay him.  The check even cleared!  Go figure. 
I am assuming that Tony is going to donate the money back to her campaign!  😛

 

June 20, 2008: Added one more video below…

  WKYQ posted the second of the three videos – remembering Kent.  You can view them below.  There should be three working videos now on the site.  Those make up the whole video (divided into three sections).

 

 

June 19, 2008: Thursday…

  Well, it has been a long few weeks.  Not the best start to summer.  I am constantly reminded what is important in life.  It seems like we allow all of the little things to build up until they seem like something big.  In reality there are always going to be "projects" and "things to do".  Most of them are not all that important – some area – but most, in the greater scheme of life, are small.

  I don’t believe I will ever get used to not hearing Kent on the radio.  I am so used to saying "Com 10 to DES 1" – and I don’t think the habit will be easily broken.  I guess Kent will be watching the storms from above and will most likely have a better view than all of us.  I have a feeling he will be chasing many storms.  I will miss him – everyone will miss him.

—————————————————-

  We have been in limbo over the last few days.  Long story short, we decided that it takes too long to drive from Mayfield to Massac County.  The gas isn’t getting any cheaper either.  So we were going to move back into Ashcreek.  As a matter of fact, I moved about half our stuff last weekend.  I guess it gave me something to do to take my mind off of everything else that was going on. 

  So anyway, I moved a lot of our stuff back.  Then the night before we were going to move, a couple called and wanted to stay in the house – for two days.  So, we let them stay.  They called today and I am not sure if they are going to buy the house or not.  It sounds like they have to sell their house first.  Soooo…what do we do.  Move back?  Don’t move back?  Uncertain.  I guess we will move back and if the house sells then that would be a good problem.

  The excavator is going to start next Monday.  We have put it off a few times – mainly to accomodate his schedule.  So, Monday it is!  I will take pics – of course.

  We are going to St Louis on Wednesday and meeting with a guy that does solar work.  We are exploring options and keeping an open mind.  I have no idea what we will end up with.

  The house design is moving along – I don’t have anything in hand but the architect is working on the project.  I hope to have something next week!  We shall see.  🙂

  The goal is to start the footer in July.  Will we meet that deadline?  I have no idea.  Set goals and strive to reach them. 

  David is in Paducah.  He is heading back to Canada late next week – he may return after that – actually he might meet us in Washington D.C. for the weather conference.

  Having lunch with Sue tomorrow.  Then perhaps a movie?  Unsure.   Lot going on. 

 

 

June 18, 2008: A tribute to Kent King video…

  Several people in the community put this together for Kent and his family. 


Part 1


Part 2


Part 3

 

June 17, 2008:


The video

 

I found this video online.  🙂  I am trying to get the Channel Six tributes to work.  They can be viewed on their web site.

http://www.wpsdtv.com/news/default.aspx

June 16,2008:

  Today we lay Kent to rest.


From the Paducah Sun

 

 Funeral services were held Monday for Kent King at the West End Baptist Church in Paducah.
 
King died after a heart attack at his home on Friday. A procession of emergency service vehicles from around the area led the hearse to Woodlawn Memorial Gardens.
 
King served as McCracken County’s director of emergency services since 1990.

 

——————–

Final Call Over Police Scanner Pays Tribute To Kent King

(WKYX) Final call over the police scanner for a long time public servant as McCracken County Disaster and Emergency Services Coordinator Kent King was laid to rest yesterday. It was a symbolic final tribute as central dispatch called for DES One over the radio and waited with no response after King’s funeral. Kent King, who also worked for more than 30 years at Bristol Broadcasting including most recently doing morning Traffic on WKYX and WKYQ, died of a heart attack Friday. He was 51. (posted 7:20 am)

 

June 15, 2008: Kent’s Amazing Life…

June 14, 2008: Funeral arrangements…

The visitation is Sunday at 5:00 at Milner and Orr Funeral Home (this is by PCC on Highway 62).  The funeral will be held on Monday at West End Baptist Church on 28th Street in Paducah at 12:00 with visitation two hours proceeding.

So visitation is tomorrow from 5 PM until ? and then on Monday from 10 AM until Noon.

 
Kent King at the 2007 New Madrid Earthquake Drill

 

June 14, 2008: Kent King

Article copied from the Paducah Sun

June 13, 2008: Woody Laid To Rest Today…

  Dylan’s friend was laid to rest today in Massac County.  Dylan was one of the football players who helped carry the casket.  We went to visitation with Dylan last night and there were a lot of ball players there.  Josh’s mother was in disbelief that her son had been taken from her at such a young age.  I know that Tyler, Danielle, and Dylan will miss Josh very much.  Josh was a great kid, a great person, and a good friend to the family.

 

June 13, 2008: New KIVA Partner…

 

More information on KIVA

Honimoy Badalova lives in Yavan. She is 48 years old, married with six children and is a housewife. She also keeps and raises a few calves for sale. In addition to the calves Honimoy would like to buy a dairy cow to provide fresh milk for her family and to sell whatever is extra.

 

Name: Honimoy Badalova
Business Name: Cattle keeping
Location: Yavan, Tajikistan
Primary Activity:

Dairy

June 13, 2008: WKYQ Comments On Kents Life…

WKYQ Mourns Loss Of Legendary Broadcaster Kent King

WKYQ and the Bristol Broadcasting Company are in mourning, after long time personality Kent King died suddenly at his home Friday.  Kent was an employee at WKYQ for more than 30 years. Initial reports indicated he suffered a heart attack at his home in Paducah just after noon on Friday. He was rushed to the hospital, but attempts to revive him were not successful.

Kent’s on-air resume included virtually all styles of broadcast.   Kent was WKYQ’s longest-running on air personality, starting with the Q in 1975.  Bristol Broadcasting general manager Gary Morse remembers, "I personally hired him right after he graduated from Paducah Tilghman High School. Kent was a disk jockey for 23 years, and served the region as our morning traffic reporter for the past 10 years."

Kent was the creator of WKYQ’s unique and nationally recognized weekend program, "The Outlaw Hours".  He was also program director and afternoon air personality for a large part of his WKYQ tenure.

In addition to his broadcasting career, Kent also served as the Emergency Management Director for McCracken County. Kent King was 51.  He will be sorely missed, and fondly remembered by everyone here who had the privilege of working with him.

—————–

After tonight’s storms, in Paducah, the sky turned bright red.  This is a photo of the sky.  There was a tremendous amount of cloud to ground lightning with the storm and blinding rain.  I couldn’t help but think about Kent while watching all of this and waiting for him to say something on the radio.

 

June 13, 2008: Rest In Peace Kent…

 

You will be GREATLY missed.  🙁  Kent put a tremendous amount of trust in me and I always tried to live up to his expectations.  I can say that Kent made me a better person and has encouraged me to continue my education and study of weather.  My respect for Kent was enormous.  I just can’t imagine him not being on the other side of that radio.

 

McCracken County Emergency Management Director Kent King died suddenly at his home today.

Initial reports indicate that King suffered from a heart attack at his home in Paducah just after noon on Friday. His official cause of death is yet to be announced.

51-year-old King was also a long-time employee of Bristol Broadcasting Company and was WKYQ’s longest running on-air personality, starting in 1975.

 

June 10, 2008:

Beau Dodson Photograph…

 

 

News Channel Six Story

http://www.wpsdtv.com/mostpopular/story.aspx?content_id=7b30d66f-f118-46ae-b741-d73c5ad372dd

A community is in mourning over the loss of two teenagers.

17 year old Joshua Woods and 14 year old McKenzee Castaneda, both from Metropolis, Illinois, were killed over the weekend in a car crash.

Police say the car Woods was driving pulled into the path of a truck on Powers Church Road and Highway 145 in Massac County Saturday evening.

A third passenger in the car, 16 year old Jordan Pannell was taken to the hospital and is listed in stable condition.

Friends and family say the two young athletes were already looking forward to the coming school year.

Softball was a big part of the lives of McKenzee Castaneda and her friends since the time they were in second grade. Madison Stephens says teammates relied on McKenzee’s batting skills.

Her friends hoped bigger games were ahead.

“We were ready for high school.  We were going to go at it all of us together, but I know she’s going to be still cheering us on up there when we’re in high school.  We’re gonna miss our cleanup hitter,” said Stephens.

Another team grieves for Joshua Woods.  His football coach called a team meeting this morning.

“It is very sad when a person has their whole life ahead of them,” said Coach Glass.

 Coach Glass mentored Joshua for three years.  He says the reason he coaches is to have the opportunity to know players like him.

Friends have marked the crash site with flowers and crosses and a placard for McKenzee remembering her eyes and her smile. Another type of memorial is in the works.  Madison and her teammates are organizing one last softball game after McKenzee’s funeral dedicated to their friend.

“We’re going to try to keep our spirits up like she was there.  It’s going to be really bad, upsetting to play but hopefully not too bad,” said Stephens.

“We’ve all been here together for a long time, and that’s a very true phenomenon here at Massac.  We win together, and we lose together, and we hurt together, and that’s what’s going on right now,” said Coach Glass.

A Castaneda family friend is handling funeral arrangements at Pyle Funeral Home in Johnston City.

Visitation will be at the Brookport Church of God from 5 to 9pm Tuesday night. The funeral service is at 1pm Wednesday at the church.

McKenzee will be buried in Otterbein Cemetery in Pope County. Memorials may be sent to the Brookport Church of God youth group.

Funeral arrangements for Joshua Woods are still being finalized.

 

 

June 9, 2008: Joey’s Birthday

  We went out to eat last night with several friends.  Today was spent getting shots for Africa and running errands.  We had lunch with dinner.  A low key day I suppose.  It was HOT outside!  We ended up with a few rain showers and thunderstorms.

  Here are pictures of Joey with his cake:

 

 

Community Mourns Teens Killed in Car Crash

 
news Channel Six Photograph

 

METROPOLIS– Two young athletes are killed after a car crash in Massac County.

Police say 14 year-old McKenzee Castaneda and 17 year-old Josh Woods died, after the car they were in collided with another vehicle.

It happened Saturday night on route 145, just outside of Metropolis.

Police say there are no indications that alcohol played a part in this crash. Actually, they say it’s not clear why Josh Woods pulled his car out in front of another car–leading to the accident

Both Woods and Castaneda were budding young athletes.

McKenzee Castaneda was a popular girl who had a knack for sports.

"She was an excellent setter as far as volleyball goes, but she was multi-talented" says Zach MillerI. "I believe she played short-stop on the softball team and they got second in the state."

Her volley-ball coach Zach Miller says he found out about her death from other girls on the team– all of them torn up over this loss.

"A few of my volleyball players gave me a call and just let me know. Obviously they were in tears and hurt by it" says Miller.

Players on the Massac County foot-ball team are also mourning the loss of one of their own- Josh Woods.

"We met with the team Monday morning at 8:30" says football coach Kelly Glass. "Of course that was the question- Why coach? Or what do we do now coach?"

Josh Woods wore jersey number 55. His coach says he wasn’t the type of player who you’d hear about in the news for making touchdowns, but he was a team player

"He was a line-backer. He played defense. The neat thing about football is you need a bunch of kids like that too."

At the scene of the accident on 145, members of the community have placed crosses in remembrance of the two teens killed.

It could be a while before this city moves on.

"Every time we take the court, we’re always going to remember and always wonder" says Miller.

There was another teen in the car driven by Woods– 16 year-old Jordan Pennell. We’re told he received major injuries and was taken to a hospital in Cape Girardeau. No word on his condition.

The driver of the second car– 28 year-old Colin Smith– received only minor injuries.

A visitation is scheduled for Castaneda at the Brookport Church of God Tuesday night from five to nine.
The funeral is at one on Wednesday also at the church.

Arrangements have not yet been made for Josh Woods. We’re told that’s because he is an organ donor.

June 8, 2008: Thoughts and prayers…

Dylan’s best friend was killed last night in Metropolis.  He would have been a senior this year.

 

Car Crash Kills Two Metropolis Teens

 

 

MASSAC COUNTY — A car crash in Massac County took the lives of two teenagers. Police say 17 year old Joshua Woods and 14 year old Mckenze Castaneda were both killed in a two car accident. It happened Saturday night around 5:30 at the intersection of Rt. 145 and Powers Church Road, just outside of Metropolis.

"There is nothing to indicate any kind of recklessness there’s no indication of any alcohol use by anybody involved in this crash," said Lt. Mike Hooks with the Illinois State Police.

Police say Woods was driving with his friends, Castaneda was in the passenger seat and Jordan Pannell was in the back, when 28 year old Colin Smith crashed into them. According to state police Woods was driving westbound on Powers Church Road, he had stopped at the stop sign, but when he pulled out onto 145 Smith was unable to stop.

"We don’t know why he pulled into the path of the truck or failed to see it, its not an obstructed view area, its a safe road its an open road area," said Hooks.

McKenze Castaneda died on the scene. When emergency crews arrived Woods was airlifted to Vanderbilt Medical Center but officers say he died early Sunday morning. Re-constructionists with the state police are investigating and talking to witnesses, putting together a picture of how the crash happened. Hooks says the process could take some time to complete.

"This crash was just an oversight by a driver that turned into a terrible tragedy," said Hooks.

Police say 16 year old Jordan Pannell received major injuries and was taken to St. Francis Medical Center in Cape Girardeau. The driver of the truck, Colin Smith, was taken to Western Baptist Hospital in Paducah. Officers say his injuries should be survivable.

A visitation is scheduled for Castaneda at the Brookport Church of God on Tuesday night from five to nine. The funeral is at one on Wednesday also at the church. No word yet on services for Joshua Woods.

June 6, 2008: The Cap

  So we have been capped for weeks now.  This means that thunderstorms have a very hard time forming.  There have been a few scattered storms over the last five weeks – but not many.  We were actually near a record low during the month of May in the severe weather department (at least for West KY and South IL).  We went from flooding rains in March and April to dry hot winds in May.  Go figure.

  The CAP has held today across most of our counties.  The tornado watch to our north and west has proven to be active – esp around St Louis and Mt Vernon.  Numerous severe thunderstorms with hail and heavy rain.  Several tornadoes also reported.

  On the house front…

  We are currently working with the architect and coming up with a house plan.  I don’t have a copy of the plan but it is coming along.  It may be a few more weeks before we have something in print.  The excavator was going to start this week but it appears that it will end up being next week.  He was going to have to pull his equipment from one job site and move it to ours.  I told him not to waste the gasoline.  We are not in a hurry as we are still working on the footprint.

  We are trying to find some green solutions.  One item we are looking at is a solar hot water heater. 

  David is in Paducah today and tomorrow.  He was staying down here in Mayfield but the place he was staying was all booked up for the weekend.  So back to Paducah he went.  We will meet up again tomorrow.

  🙂  I think summer has arrived.

 

June 4, 2008: Lucy In Florida…

  Kristy sent me a photograph of Lucy, down in Florida.  Appears that she is getting plenty of sunshine.  Where are her sun glasses though?  A diva should never be without her sun glasses!

June 3, 2008: Is it reallllly June????

  Where does time go?  It seems like it just turned SPRING!  Now it is already June?  I don’t know what happens with time but it seems like every year just goes by faster and faster.  Someone please slow down the ride!

  We spent the day with David today.  We had a lot of errands to run in Paducah.  Ended up eating at Whaler’s Catch.  I love the hush puppies there.  As a matter of fact, it is one of the few places that actually serves hush puppies. 

  This evening we watched Hillary quit.  Oh wait, she didn’t quit.  She decided to quit quitting before she has to quit.  Something like that!

  I need to call Sue and Caesar.  It has been awhile since we have been out to eat.  David would like to meet them as well.  SOOOO put it on the list!  I believe I am having dinner with Jason and Jess this Sunday.  I need to call them as well!  Then it has been a little while since I was able to see John.   Tomorrow I am having breakfast with my dad.  I will need to go on a diet soon!!!

  It was hot today.  Temperatures were almost ninety degrees.  Humidity was high.  Not my kind of weather.  I would rather see snow myself.  I am sure I will get a few frowns on that comment.

  Hopefully they will start excavating on Friday.  We plan on taking some photos (go figure).  We may look for arrowheads as well.  David is going to be in town for awhile, so perhaps he can hunt arrowheads as well.

  On the note of the farm – I don’t EVER recall so many ticks.  We found close to 30 on Monday.  That is THIRTY ticks on four of us.  TERRIBLE.  We are going to have to spray.  I think I have six bites now.  Not good.  David has zero bites.  Joey has had one or two.  They must like me.  🙁  I don’t like them.  BAD year for critters.

  Tony drove us yesterday.  We went to the farm and to Carbondale.  We had to turn the electricity on (for the farm)!  Another step along the way.  We also checked out some solar tubes.  Not overly impressed with those.  I wish someone installed solar in this area.  Can’t seem to have much luck.  Perhaps down the road?

  Daisy is out of town for a few days.  She goes on these day trips…to visit friends.  🙂

  I need a new Lucy picture…speaking of Daisy. 

  Now, I just want to say that I did not take this photograph.  You will have to ask Tony why he has a purse in his hands.  I make no claims about the circumstances surrounding this photo.  It is what it is.  🙂 lol  David took this photo.  All complaints should be sent ot him and will be filed appropriately.

 

June 2, 2008: Exciting Days!!!!

  I am beside myself with excitement.  David is down visiting from Canada, he has never stayed this long in Kentucky before.  I don’t believe he has caught the :"southern fever" – at least not yet.  Deena told him that he was starting to fit in a bit too much.  I think that scared him.  He has not been saying ya’all very much.  He will get there…he will get there.

  We moved through MAJOR brush today in a cemetery.  I did at least – Tony and Joey did as well.  Deena cleared out one area and jumped into the middle of some large brush piles and started looking for graves.  We found a BUNCH.  To say the least.  One snake and two tics later we were able to dig out some very old graves.  We are unsure who they are – at this moment.  I will continue to dig a bit and see what we can find out.

  We also have discovered the old farm census/tax records concerning what our great great grandfathers owned.  I think we go back four greats on the Dodson side and perhaps seven or eight on the Verbarg side.  WAY back.

  I see a trip to Germany in the future.   We want to find out a few things about our family over there.  If I understand correcntly they have pieced it back to the 1500s. We are also working on one of our family members who member Abraham Lincolns Aunt.  Now that will be COOL!!!!

  I still like the war hero weatherman!  🙂  Can’t beat that.  Trying to contact TWC about getting the dvd set for their special storm stories on the subject.  Waiting for them to email me back.  We shall see!!!

  Tomorrow the landscaping begins.  Wait…not tomorrow – TODAY!  They begin landscaping today at 8 AM.  SO HERE WE GO EVERYONE!!!!!!!

  THE WORK BEGINS!!!!!