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Beau's Journey » 2009 » October

Archive: October, 2009

October 30, 2009: The rain just won’t end

  Well, the wet weather continues.  We have picked up over 10" of rain since October 1st.  Just insane.  More rain will fall today.  Most likely 1.5-3 inches of rain will fall today.  This will add to our totals.  Flash flood watches and warnings are in effect for most of our local counties.

  Enough on the weather – who cares about the rain?  🙂

  The house is moving along.  We went up there yesterday and the floors had one or two layers of stain (I call it stand but they call it something else) on them.  We could not go in the house – can’t go in for another seven days.  They need time to dry.  What we could see – on the stairs – looked nice, though.  Hopefully they will dry quickly and we can move on to the next stage.

  Still looks like late November into December before we move.  Hoping for a smooth move.  It is stressful – a bit.  But, we are getting there.  I will be glad to get settled in.  Will take some time to unpack and get everything up and running.

  Going to spend Halloween at Deena and Tony’s house.  They are having a going away party for Dylan.  He has joined the National Guard.  He leaves in November and will be gone for several months.  I believe he is able to come home for Christmas.

 

October 26, 2009: Farm photos from the last few days

  We had a lot of rain over the last week or so.  Rained a bit on Friday morning  – just enough to create a rainbow in the sky.  It was pretty cool.  I was sitting in the back of my SUV waiting on someone when a squally line of showers passed through.  Then the sun came out to my south and created a rainbow to the north of the farm.

 


Stormy early morning sky

 


Click for larger image


Rain

 


Rainbow


October days

 

 


Evening at the farm

 

 

October 26, 2009: Danielle’s Cheerleading Event

  Danielle had a big cheer leading event on Sunday afternoon.  They will be going into competition starting later this month and next month.  I believe they go to Nashville and several other places.

  She did a great job yesterday!!

 

October 26, 2009: Diploma


Diploma from Mississippi State University

 

October 24, 2009: Beautiful Sadness

  Beautiful Sadness – when two simultaneous events occur each being equally as important but yet with opposite emotions.

 


Mother standing on the second floor deck of the new house looking
out over where the house my dad and her built used to stand.

 

October 23, 2009: Thoughts and condolences to Tony’s family

  Tony’s grandmother passed away at 5 am this morning. 

October 21, 2009: LET THE SANDING BEGIN!!!! Last stage of the house.

  Well, the sanding started earlier this afternoon.  This is one of the last stages of the building process.  After the floors are finished we will still need to install the kitchen cabinets and the library shelves.  Also the entertainment center in the living room.  Then a few touches here and there!  It looks like it will be late November before everything is finished.  The wood floors may take longer than expected.  Could even be December.  We hope not, though.

  They finished the gutters today, as well.  So, that is good news.  Insulators will finish up tomorrow – under the house.  The benches around the windows on the top floor should be finished in the next week or so.

  Few pictures – click image for larger view


Master bedroom – floors will still need to be finished


Weather room – floors are down.


Tony Crouch – cutting some wood.  Or so he wants us to believe. 🙂


Third floor – family room


Dining room and living room


Let the sanding begin!!!!!!!!!!!


This is what the floors will look like when finished – sort of 🙂


Family room


Tony Crouch – sanding – errr pretending to sand 🙂

 

October 19, 2009: Article about OEM and scanner feeds

  The Paducah Sun ran an article today about people not being able to listen in on their old scanners.  The article tells people how to listen to emergency management when severe weather strikes.

  Jason made the front page 🙂


Click to read article


Click to read article

 

 

October 18, 2009: Dylan in his military uniform


Dylan – Fort Massac State Park

 

October 17, 2009: A new look!!!! Landscapers were working hard today

  Today we went up during the morning hours.  The landscapers had done a wonderful job of filling in the old cistern (that caved in a few months ago) – filling the old pond to the east of the property – covering up what was left of the smoldering remains of the house – and removing the mound of dirt to the west.  Looks like a totally different place now.

  Sort of sad to see the old house gone.  But, exciting to see the new house standing there in all of its glory.  Hard to believe we went from a mound of dirt to this – all in the last few months.  Quite amazing.

  We are getting anxious to move – of course.  Trying to clean up around here.  Go through everything.  Get rid of what we don’t want to take with us.  Getting some new items for the kitchen.  Just passing time and waiting for the big day.  Looks like it will be 3-4 more weeks.  Trying to decide if we will or will not put up Christmas lights this year.  Thinking hard about it.  We will see.  🙂

  Our first widespread frost tonight for the region.  There has already been one small frost – tonight should be widespread, though.  Can snow be far behind?  🙂

  Some photos from today

  All of our photos can be viewed here

  Click any image below for the larger size 🙂


What was left of the old house and some dead trees – burning in the fire
pit


Looking north.  Landscapers were hard at work.


Looking east – old cistern there at the bottom right.  Old pond to the east.
All nicely filled in and smoothed out.


Bulldozer pushing down the big mound of dirt to the west.


Old cistern has been filled in and smoothed over. 

 


Front of the house – looking down from the observation deck

 

 


Looking north/northeast from the observation deck.

 

 


Looking south towards the front of the house

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Observation deck – it was a chilly morning – temps in the 40s

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

October 16, 2009: The day the old house came down

  Today was the day.  The house that I grew up in was torn down and what remained was burnt.  It took about 30-40 minutes to take it down.  It was still burning when I left.  Now the landscaping begins.  Will take awhile to get everything the way we want it.

  For this afternoon and tomorrow the guys that tore the house down will be smoothing everything out – making it look better – getting rid of debris.  Then in a week or two we will have someone come in and landscape around the house – put some plants in – plant a few new trees.

  Not sure on the move in date.  About the time I think we have that figure out it changes.  It could be as late as the end of November.  Right now it looks like the third or fourth week of November.  Hopefully we can get in there before December.  Hard to say.  We have to get the wood floors finished – then sanded and sealed – then the cabinets go in – the library and the living room needs to be finished – then the appliances – then at the very end we will have someone come in and clean everything up.

  It will be awhile.

  Some photos from today – click photos for larger images

 

 


Time to take the house down

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Dione standing next to our old house

 


Burning what is left

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


Tony in front of the old house

 


Tony

 

 


Roxie working up on the third floor

 


Third floor – hardwood floors are almost down

 


Tony cutting some wood

 


Oops

 

 

 

 

October 15, 2009: Demolition begins tomorrow at 7:30 AM

  Well, some good news.  Progress on the demolition of the old house.  Demolition will begin tomorrow morning at 7:30 AM.  🙂

  The wood floors should arrive today.  That is also good news.  Hopefully that is the case.

 

October 14, 2009: A very chilly October!

  Amazing – incredible numbers.  A large portion of the middle U.S. has been WAY below normal in the temperature department over the last 15 days.  Anywhere from -5 to -15 degrees below normal.  A -1 or -2 overall average for any given month is quite impressive.  But, to see widespread -5 to -15 departure from normals is just incredible.

  I guess we will see how this works out for the rest of the fall and winter.  Early snows have fallen over portions of the Midwest and are now being forecast into the northeast over the next few days.  Pennsylvania may get a damaging snowstorm over the next few days.  Lot of tree and power line damage expected in those areas.

  No new word on the house.  We have been waiting to hear from Michael on the wood floors.  Either we will have a significant delay or everything is going to be a couple of days behind schedule.  Unsure which.  Maybe we will hear something tonight or tomorrow.

  Everything else up at the farm is moving along nicely.  Most of the wood floors are down, doors are going up, trim is being put on, lights are working, plumbing was being installed – sinks/toilets/faucets.  Sears delivered all of our appliances yesterday.  They are here in Paducah. 

  That is about all I know for now 🙂

 

October 13, 2009: WET – again. Waiting on word…

  Well, we either have a significant setback at the farm or we are right on track.  lol  I won’t know until later today.  Hopefully we don’t have a big delay.

  Wet again.  Rain is moving into our counties.  It has been an extremely wet month – and cool.  Winter has come early to portions of the United States.  Record cold and record snow.  It is only October!

  Have a helper today in the weather department 🙂


Daisy wanted to take her nap on my desk today.

 

 

October 11, 2009: First frost reported over south IL and west KY!

  Low temperatures fell into the middle to upper 30s over the region last night.  According to WPSD there were reports of frost as far south as Benton, Kentucky.  Ballard County also reported frost. 

  A bit early for frost.  Several weeks early – actually. 

  Everything points to an active-stormy winter.  Appears we will have below normal temperatures, as well.

 

October 7, 2009: KABOOOOOOM Lightning hit!

  We had a powerful lightning hit on October 1st.  Knocked out our cable and a few outlets.  The explosion from the lightning was so loud that it hurt our ears for awhile afterwards.

  We couldn’t find the lightning strike, but I knew it had to be close.  We saw the sparks out the south window.

  Today I found the strike.  🙂  Walking around the yard I started finding debris from a tree.  Shredded wood.  It was all the way up to the house.  Then I looked over our neighbors fence and there stood a tall tree that had been stripped of its bark and looked shredded.  You could still smell the fresh wood.

  Thankfully it wasn’t worse.  At least the tree is still standing and nothing caught on fire.

  Click the image for larger view

 

 


Shredded tree in our yard.  The debris extended out about 100′

 

 

October 3, 2009: Of course Comcast is a no show

  Well, after Comcast told us to be here between 8 am and noon today – they are a no show.  When I called they said that they had an outage in the area on Thursday morning and that they had fixed the outage and "assumed" ours was working.  I told her that we didn’t even call in until Thursday night.  So, anyway.  lol  Comcast does this ALL the time.  They make appointments – ask people to be home between such and such hours and then never show up.  Then when we call they give some excuse.

  I told the last that I just assumed anymore that Comcast won’t show up when they tell us – or never show up at all.

  Now she says perhaps someone will come out on Sunday or Monday.  I told her that was not reasonable and that people can’t just wait around for them to show up.

  Nothing new from Comcast.  Same as always.  A wasted morning – and it is absolutely stunning weather outside.

  So – now I guess we will go do something.

 

October 2, 2009: Enjoying the little things…

  Well, it was a good week.  Lot was accomplished up at the farm.  Lot of nice weather – amazing weather, actually.  A few entertaining moments – the lightning strike last night (well maybe that was not so entertaining) – the trip to the post office yesterday (that made us laugh and that is never a bad thing) – Tri-pod up at the farm who doesn’t have a single care in the world and now watches for us when we drive up the lane – the fence sketch (that was worth a few laughs) – seeing the Zombie movie tonight (a little gross but still a good movie) – hmmm what else. 

  We are still without cable or internet (I am using my backup Bell South).  COMCAST says they will be here tomorrow between 8 am and 12 pm.  Now, on a Saturday morning – when you want to sleep in – I bet they show up at 7:30 am.  🙂

  🙂  I am loving this weather.  The weekend is going to be incredible.  Fall has arrived!

 

October 2, 2009: No kidding! The government! How not to send mail.

  So, we had to mail a package yesterday and this package was on a deadline.  It was going outside of the country.  Now – I have mailed many packages to other countries.  This is particularly true of Canada.  Having friends up in Canada means that from time to time a package will be mailed up to the great white north.  No big deal.  Right?  lol

  Enter stage left the United States Postal Service.  Also set in front of you a box.  A small box.  No bigger than 10 inches wide and 14 inches long.  Height of the box was about 3 inches.  Small box from Amazon.  No big deal.  Simple.  I just need the United States Postal Service to take this box and get it to Canada with next day delivery.  Simple enough!  No mess – no drama – nothing.

  So, we get to the post office and approach the lady at the counter.  I show her what I want to do.  I tell her how I want to do it.  She looks everything over and asked me if we had filled out the customs form.  I said – no we have not filled that out yet.  She proceeds to hand me the form.  Joey fills it out.  Asking a few questions here and there – what goes in this blank or that blank. 

  Meanwhile, the lady behind the counter asked me if we would like an envelop or a box to put the Amazon box into.  I told her that perhaps the small box she was showing me would work just fine.  Great.  Now we have the customs form and the box to put the Amazon box into.  Making progress.

  A few minutes go by.  She is asking me questions – how much is the package worth – where is it going – weighs the box.  She then asked me what is in the box.  I told her what it was.  She looks and looks and looks over her computer.  She starts reading me the options.  I tell her it is electronic.  She reads from her list of electronic devices.  Not hearing anything that sounds like what is in the box.  Okay – no big deal.  She keeps reading – we are standing there and Joey has finished the customs form.  Finally we settle on just calling it a dvd decide.  Apparently nothing else on her computer screen – which she turned the monitor around for me to look at (but I couldn’t read anything because it was a green monocrome screen and was so dull that the letters were not distinguishable) matches what is in the box.

  OK – well we have the customs form finished and we have the box on the scale.  The lady then asked me if we had filled out form 1660 (or some number).  I said – no – what would that form be?  She says it has to be filled out in order to send the package.  I said – OK what is it.  She said it was something that showed what was in the box and what it was worth.   I looked at her for a minute – then I said – OK that would be this custom form.  States right here what is in the box and what the value of the merchandise is.  She then said – well no that isn’t it.  She says – this is a specific form stated on my computer screen that is required to go with the package.

  I said – OK where do we get that form.  She said – I don’t know.  It should have come from Amazon.  I said – hmmm no I don’t think so.  I asked her – why would Amazon send us a customs form for Canada?  That didn’t make any sense.  So – she looked at her screen some more and then turned it around to me and pointed at the screen – she said it says right here that in order for you to send this to Ontario that you have to fill out this form.  I then said – OK what is the forms name.  She then said – PS 1660.  I said – isn’t that a form that you would have?  She said – no.  This form had to come from Amazon or we had to supply the form.  She suggested we go online and try to find it on the Amazon site.  I said – hmmm that doesn’t sound right.  I then asked her what PS stood for.  I said – doesn’t that stand for Postal Service.  She looks for a bit and then looked at me.  Looked at her computer screen.  Then she went over to the corner of the building and started to dig through papers.  She was gone a good three or four minutes. 

  She came back – she said well you only have a few minutes left to mail this off.  I said – why?  She said because at 15 till we can no longer put boxes over there where the pick up is.  I was quiet for a moment.  I looked over at the pile of out going mail.  I wondered to myself – sooooo we are standing here with a box to mail and if we don’t finish in the next few minutes you are not allowed to take this box and put it on that pile over there?  That is what I was thinking.  But – trying to maintain my cool and not get upset – I simply said okay.  Well, we need that form.

  I asked her – when can you get the package there if we do all of this.  She said – looks like tomorrow – October 2nd.  I said – great.  That is what we need – this is a very important package and we need it to get to Canada by tomorrow because our friend is leaving town.  She said – okay fill all of these forms out.

  She then said that she really had no idea where to get that form.  She suggested we needed to go online to get the form.  I told her that I didn’t that she was correct.  That this had to be some form the postal service would have.   She left for another minute and finally came back with a bunch of forms.  Six papers.  She said – you were right – that is a U.S. Postal form.  She said – you have to fill alllllll of these papers out.  I looked down and no kidding – in front of me was form after form after form after form.  I laughed out loud a little bit.  I looked over at Joey and said – well I guess we need to go over here and fill these out.

  So – we left the line and went over to the desk in the middle of the post office.  We started filling out forms.  Duplicate after duplicate – all asking the same thing.  It took several minutes, but we finally got all of the forms filled out.  We gather up all of the papers and the box and headed back to the counter.

  She then looked over everything and started to punch in keys on her computer.  A minute or two passes.  She then says – well we can get it there by October 5th.  I think – she says.  She looks again and says – yes we can get it there by October 5th.  We don’t work Saturday and Sunday.

  I said – you just told me you could get it there tomorrow.  She said – yes, but that was a few minutes ago and before the deadline.  You are a few minutes past the deadline and the computer won’t allow me to do that.

  There was silence for a few moments.  I sighed.  But, kept my cool.  Having learned in the past that it is never productive to get upset.  I should say that I have learned that many times in life.  lol  So, I asked the lady at the post office – can’t I just take this down to Federal Express and have them send it and get it there quicker.  She said – yes perhaps you could do that.  They are open until 5 pm.

  I looked at Joey – gathered all of the papers up – grabbed the box – we headed out the door.

  We then went to Federal Express.  I walked into the door with all of the papers and the one box.  I looked at the lady and said – we have a box that is going to Canada.  We just came from the U.S. Postal Service (and she laughed – didn’t say anything).  I said – we need it there tomorrow.  Can you do it.  She said here – fill out this one form and bring it back to me.  She handed me a piece of paper that was about six inches long and five inches wide.  It had two sets of questions – who it is going to and who it is from.  The value, as well.  That was it.  NOTHING ELSE.  JUST ONE FORM.

  I gave her the form and the box and she said – okay you are done.  That will be X amount of money.  I paid her and looked at her.  I said – that’s it?  She said – yes.  I laughed and said something about how our government could learn a few things.

LESSONS LEARNED:

the government can’t run anything efficiently. 
If you are going to mail something – mail it through Federal Express.  Next time that will be my first stop. 

  I will say that it was entertaining and fun, though.  Took my mind off the house building for a little bit.  🙂

 

 

October 1, 2009: WELCOME TO OCTOBER!!!! Lightning storm to begin the month. Ouch

  Well, I had jotted down a bunch of notes.  Then we got hit by lightning – saw sparks outside the window by the pole.  Everything popped – hurt our ears – still ringing.  About as close as I want to be tonight to electricity.  Ouch.

  Anyway – everything is moving along at the house.  Daisy’s fence arrived today.  It came on an 18 wheeler – we had to meet the guy at the end of the lane.  Picked it up and placed it into a smaller truck and brought it up the lane. 

  Dale was working on the closet and vanities today.  Rodney and Don were working on the floors.  So, everything is moving along.  One step at a time.  🙂

  Thunderstorms tonight – obviously.  No severe weather expected.

  Some photos from yesterday and today

 


Weather room – Bill Ford and Joseph

 


Sun room

 


Garage doors are going up

 

 

 

 


The old house that I grew up in – it is being recycled

 


Daisy

 


Southern Illinois Electric – taking their wires down.  They will leave the
poles for now in the field.  Once the fields are clear then they will come
back and take the rest of the poles down.

 

 

 

 


Old house that is being town down

 


Old house that I grew up in

 

 


Daisy’s fence

 


Loading Daisy’s fence up

 

 


Don riding on the back of the truck bringing up the fence