Thursday, April 23, 2020 - Making a List and Checking it Twice....It Made Me Get Things Done

Thursday, April 23, 2020 - Making a List and Checking it Twice....It Made Me Get Things Done

Taken from the door of the RV as
 the sun was coming up this morning.

The temperatures this morning were about the same as yesterday, low 50's, however today there was more wind, so it was a bit breezy for our morning walk.  Usually after the first mile, if I have a jacket on, I'm ready to drop it at the car as we walk by.  Dean dropped his off, but I kept mine on until we finished walking this morning.  

The irises are blooming in the park, and the wind was blowing again this morning.

Cloudy skies.

It was a beautiful morning but still overcast - leftover from yesterday's rain I guess.  We headed back to Bentley and I made our shakes.  This morning we used frozen peaches with the vanilla protein.  They were delicious.  

After doing the dishes, making the bed, and just straightening up I hopped in the shower.  Late yesterday I made a list of things I wanted to get done in the next day or two.  I had three places I needed to stop today, besides the other items on the list.  Dean left for the garage and after my shower I left Bentley to run some errands.  First stop was at Dollar General to buy a new notebook.  I like notebooks that will fit in my purse.  I use them for all my notes, to make lists for to do's, groceries, info on new accounts I open and the passwords (for instance  Pizza Hut and Casey's, so I can order online, pay for it, then all I have to do is pick it up), phone numbers (which I eventually add to my phone), addresses, etc.  It's like a little day to day diary so to speak.  I'm about to run out of space in my last one.

Notebook - this is much smaller than it looks here.  The one I'm currently using is in the corner above.

I stopped at the drug store, found what I needed, paid and left (I was the only one shopping in the store, with two ladies checking out) then returned to Bentley.  As I was walking to the door, I realized I forgot to stop at the Post Office.  It was almost lunch time.  Since Dean would be returning from the garage soon, I decided to wait and do that later.  I am going to my sister's later today, and the Post Office is right on the way.

Dean continues to cut weeds, brush, limbs around the yard.  The lot is looking nicer all the time.  Many of the trees are overgrown and need major trimming, and some need to be removed.  The underbrush has grown for several years with no one mowing the area, so there are many small trees and thick areas of weeds.   He is trying to clean up all of the trees that we want to keep for shade.  Many of the trees had heavy vines growing on them.  The vines have apparently been growing for many years.  They are thick, even killing some trees and parts of others.  He sprayed the vines last year, then cut them near the ground to kill them.  It's really sad so much of it has grown out of control.

Dean has spent hours cleaning up this area. 

There were two sunken containers that we assume had some type of fish in them at one time.  When Dean tried to take them out, he found out they were full of mosquitoes.  He sprayed them a couple of times to kill them.  After it appeared they were gone, he finally got the ponds dug out of the ground.  Now he has two large holes that we will eventually fill with dirt.  They were full of water after yesterday's rain.  There are several native rock laid around this area.  We are not sure if we'll keep this area for a garden area or what.  There is still quite a bit of work to do.  All the rock needs to be removed and stacked aside, so he can get all of the small tree stumps out of there.  I have some friends that are amazing gardeners, and I hope to get some ideas on what to do in this area.  

The light purple irises are blooming now.

I called to inquire about a survey of the north and south sides of our lot this morning.  We have neighbors to either side of us.  Before we do any work to tear out or plant things, we want to know where our property lines are.  We will probably put some type of fence on the north side, with trees and bushes along the south.

I had half of the chicken I used to make chicken noodles leftover, so tonight I made orange chicken.  We really love this easy dish.  It's a bit high in sugar, so we don't have it often.  It's a treat when we do though.

I went to my sister's later this afternoon, then stopped at the Post Office on my way home to get the mail (the prescription I've been waiting on).

My daughter gave me several puzzles this afternoon, so I have something to fill my time (when I don't have anything else to do).  They are addictive to me.  Once I start them, it's hard to leave them alone.  



Friday, April 24, 2020 - Morning Walk; Sad News; Evening Rain; Amazing Sunset

It rained in the night and early morning so I didn't think we would be able to walk.  Fortunately, it quit a short time after I got up.  After our coffee, we decided we should head to the park and hope we could get in our 2 miles.  We were able to get in 1.9 miles before we made it to the car.  It never poured but it was raining enough we wanted to get out of it.

We had our morning shakes, then Dean headed to the lot.  I did all of my morning chores, then I selected one of the puzzles Misti gave me and set about working on it.  Oh my goodness, I would get up to go do something, and before I knew it was hovering over it again, trying to find a few more pieces.   I put the border together except for a few pieces I didn't find the first time through and tried to work on a certain area for while.  I finally had to go through the box piece by piece to find those remaining border pieces. 

Around 9:30 or I so I received a text from my cousin that my Great Aunt had passed in her sleep last night.  She has been in a assisted living facility for several years.  She turned 97 in March and was the only remaining sibling of my dad's father.  Aunt Naomi was very special to us.  She never missed one of our family reunions and loved visiting with all of the families.  We will certainly miss her.  

Aunt Naomi with my granddaughter Kamron and grandson Jaxson, June 2019.

 Kamron has an "old soul".  She enjoys visiting with older people, possibly because her mom's Aunt Sis watched her when she was just a small girl.  She connected with Aunt Naomi last year at our reunion.  I will cherish this picture!

Aunt Naomi with her cousins, Jane "Elmore" Becker, and Dave Elmore and his wife Irene.  My great grandparents Elmer Blackledge and Mary Maude "Elmore" Blackledge where Aunt Naomi's parents.  Dave's parents were George and Ruth Elmore.

Aunt Naomi with Dave's wife Irene.

My Papa (Merle) had several siblings and I loved them all, but we spent quite a bit of time around Aunt Naomi and her husband Noe.  Besides an older daughter, she had two younger boys Jim and Joe who were close in age to Cindy and I.  They lived in Pryor, OK, a little over an hours drive from Chetopa, KS where my grandparents lived.  We made several trips there on Sunday afternoons to visit for a few hours, and we both enjoyed spending the day with our cousins.  The family maintained the farmhouse that my great grandparents owned for many, many years.  Several times a year, the family would gather there for weekends.  It was always fun for us as it was out in the country, so there was lots of room to run and play.  Those get together's went on for many, many years. 

Dave's mom (In the picture above), Aunt Ruth Elmore, put together a few family reunions and they were always well attended, but as her health declined we didn't have any for awhile.  My sisters and I used to gather at my dad's for his birthday on June 3.  Over time, he started inviting family (both the Blackledge's and the Duncan's - his dad and mom's families) to attend his birthday gathering.   The gathering started getting larger, so my sisters and I started inviting everyone to join us at the park in Oswego (where we walk) the first Sunday in June - keeping it in conjunction with Daddy's birthday.  We did that until my dad's health began to decline.  With COPD he couldn't take the humidity we often had, so we started holding the reunions at the Community Center.  For my sisters and I, we have now lost all of our great aunts and uncles.  I feel very blessed to have had them around for so many years and we have enjoyed such a rich heritage with them.  Spending so much time with my grandparents at a young age, gave me the opportunity to know them all and have a great respect for them and the importance of family.  Times have changed though, and I wonder how many years we will be able to continue our gatherings.  I hope we still have many more reunions in the future, but as we age, where will it go?

I prepared our light lunch when Dean showed up almost on the dot at noon.  He prefers something light since he'll be going back to the lot to work afterwards.  After an episode (or two) of Gunsmoke he left. 

We were out of "desserts/snacks".  I was inspired by a fellow blogger, Patsy, to make a carrot cake after I saw a picture of hers in a recent post.  I googled a recipe for one that would fit an 8x8 or 9x9 cake pan.  I decided to go with the bigger pan, which ended up being a mistake.  It was just a bit too much pan for the batter the recipe made.  After it cooled, I made the cream cheese frosting, which tasted better after it had set in the refrigerator all afternoon. 

I worked on that crazy puzzle all afternoon, in between doing a chore - cleaning the bathroom.   I had to make myself get up.  I told you they were addictive. 

A little after 4, I decided to drive to the lot to see what Dean was up to.  We've had so much rain I parked near the road.  I didn't see him working anywhere, so I walked down to the garage.  The side door was open, so as I approached I said, Hello.  He immediately started laughing and said you caught me doing nothing - again!  I rarely find him doing nothing, but it's not the first time he's been sitting in his black office chair, with his feet up watching TV.  That's what he did in the sticks and bricks house too.  Of course, he'd worked all day long outside, so I think he deserved a chance to rest.

I wanted to take some pictures of the lot, so we walked out to take a look.  Just to give you an idea of the undergrowth and how it's grown up around the property.

to the north from the garage.  The trees go clear to the highway - probably 100' or more.  We will eventually weed out the underbrush and smaller trees and try to save the larger ones if we can.  If not, we'll leave some of the smaller ones.  We will leave a strip of several feet to provide a break between us and the highway.

Heading toward the west - there are some nice trees in here, but many of them are several trees grown together like the one on the right.

The pine tree in the front on the left will be taken down.  It is in the way of where we plan to park Bentley - but the one behind it we will try to save.  The one in front doesn't look to bad in the picture, but it's pretty rough looking close up.

Believe it or not, there is a large pine tree in the middle of this, it has trees growing up around it.  The tree is wrapped with poison ivy roots that killed the pine tree.

Deer tracks - they must have visited last night or early this morning.

The two trees above are ones Dean spent cleaning up today.  There was all kinds of underbrush and weeds around them, like the one below.

These are other trees on the lot that still need to be cleaned up.

I took this picture while standing across the road from the lot.  It is one of the biggest areas that will require clean up.  We will take this tree down as it is also a mess.  This is where the drive to pull Bentley on to the lot will be.  The area behind this is pretty level and is plenty large enough to park Bentley and build a house.  Much of the remaining lot slopes to the east and south.

Notice the concrete pad next to the tree.  We have no idea what this is.  The property has sewer access, so we are not sure what it is.  Could it have been a well, an old septic tank, or what?  Dean is going to get a hold of a previous owner to see if he can tell us what it is.

A close up of the concrete pad.

This is the east side of the property.  Not too far behind the garage (maybe 50 feet) the land slopes down quickly.  The property beginning at the highway going south for .75-1 mile is on a bluff.   The strip of land right along the highway on our property drops at an easy slope, so we can walk almost to the bottom of the bluff.  I believe that strip was part of the old highway.  Some of the homes further south have amazing views of farmland below.  Since our property does not go that far east behind the garage, (it remained with the original property owner) we will probably never have that kind of view. 

These pictures are closeup of the areas where Dean took out the old "fish ponds".  Small trees had grown wild here for years.  You can see all of the stumps that he is going to have to remove.  You can see some of the native rock in the top picture.   

I headed home, and Dean arrived a short time later.  I warmed up leftover chicken and noddles for our dinner.  We had 2 biscuits left from a couple of nights ago, so we each had one of those as well.  After cleaning up, I was back at that puzzle.  

According to the time on this picture it was 5:40 when Dean commented on the cloud outside the back window.  I was so engrossed in my puzzle I had not noticed.  

(Sorry for the lights from the RV reflecting in it).  

In a short time the wind came up, then here came the rain.  It continued for an hour or more.  

At 7:00 I pulled out the carrot cake and cut each of us a piece.  Well, the flavor is great, but the cake was dry and very disappointing.  The cake needed to be in a smaller pan, but I still think it would have been dry.  I like pineapple in my carrot cake, so I think next time I would add a small can of crushed pineapple.  The icing was okay.  It called for 3 oz of cream cheese, and I think 4 would have given it a bit more creaminess, and cut the sweetness of the powdered sugar just a bit.  It is edible but that's about all I can say for this one.  Live and learn!

I was back at the puzzle, when Dean said, Wow, there must be an amazing sunset tonight.  I looked up and out the back window - it was glorious!  I had to run outside to take pictures (at 7:55pm). 

These are the photos the the east (you would have thought the sun was shining in a blaze).

These are the photos to the west (no sun visibly shining), but it was peeking through somewhere.

What a way to end the day!

I am so thankful for our Heavenly Father who provides us with such amazing beauty!  He really put on a show for us tonight!  I am still in awe!