Fixin' Fence

Fixin' fence at Lonesome Dove.... B J Eastman and his Dad, Jim, ....Early start, Early quit time!!!

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  Mathilde Marcotte Simnitt 10 foot long 4 inch in diameter pipe, pounded into and thru the limestone which is all over the 40 acres under the topsoil...with a pneumatic thing attached to a 1830 Case Skid loader....easy peasy...104 pieces of pipe done in a day...Today they weld the original re-rod to the new pipe by means of metal brackets... Dang Mr D and i placed all th original poles and t-posts.. Calli and Ashwill drilled almost all the posts and me and Mr D strung all the re-rod thru....took us weeks....These guys are taking 2 days to fix it all....We NEVER COULD get thru the limestone!!!...They fence all over the Flint Hills...It takes less time if you know what you're doing and you have the right tools!!!

A Day in the Life...

Mr D. tells Nick "I betcha can't wait to get home and eat some junk food!!!!"  I think Mr D. may be right, but, as Nick is a well raised kid, he just laughs and shrugs his shoulders...

Yesterday Nick and I went to see Spider Man....I loved comic books as a kid, and can remember Uncle Tommy's stash I found at Grandma's house...Our Mother , being an English literature teacher, was death on comic books...they were not allowed in our house....bad grammar and lazy talk were used in them and she especially hated both. We agreed it was a Super Movie...I love it when I have a young person along to share my "kid-ness" with...LOVED IT!

We have a pool table downstairs...most kids love it . Nick is no exception... You can hear the clack  of pool balls at all hours...

Fishing is another thing he loves...While we don't have those great Northerns and Walleyes like in Michigan, we do have some big ol' Kansas farm pond Bass and lotsa Crappies...I think he enjoyed the fishing...or maybe it was the golf cart trips up and down the hill that got him????

Our Llamas are pretty friendly here too....They like Nick.....they are kinda weird looking though!!! Queenie is the head of the Girls...she Yays or Nays all visitors....This hot weather  makes us all kinda hermits...We do stuff either early in the AM or in the evening when it cools down some...

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www.facebook.com/martiesSo...Tomorrow...it's home again, home again, jiggety jig....We'll miss having a kid around... Even if he does watch a lotta Discovery Channel and History Channel...and Eat tons of Lucky Charms in his down time!!!

Kansas Shooting Lesson

Yesterday, in the evening, Mr.D came home early and he and Nick went shooting at Ravenwood... it was a cooler night and Nick had looked forward to it all day...

Mr D loaded up the shooting vest pockets with shells, supplied Nick  with  ear plugs  and they were on their way

" NEVER  load the gun til you are IN the Station!"

Goll Dang!!!! the Kid shot two for two, first time outta the box!!!!!facebook.com/marties

Michigan to Kansas

This morning I dropped Nick off to the farm down the road...Thurlow's..
Their Grandson , Blake, whom I have known since he was a little kid, is there for his summer stay and they do some farm and horse work..Blake and Nick are the same age , but Blake is one of those Kansas 
beef and potatoes and corn fed kids and Nick tall and long legged but not near as bulky...Nik's comment when we drove up was "He's HUGE!" ..I told Nick not to let Blake's size throw him...Size does not necessarily compare to common sense all the time....Blake met us with a couple hay hooks in hand and asked Nick if he knew how to use one...Nick said "Sure" and off they went toward a wagon loaded with what looked like 70 # square bales on it.. The muscle and the Legs.....

I just checked on them...they were at the house for "Dinner"...Waiting on Grandma to get it....Nick says Kansas bales are WAY heavier than Michigan bales...They are dirty and grinning....must be a good team up....Pictures later!!!!

It's FUN to be an Auctioneer!

Thank God the weekend is over!!! Now I can rest in the cool!! Two days, two auctions.... Saturday's was intense. We auctioned 57 cars and trucks, mostly trucks, chevy 1500's, 2500's, and 3500's, 4WD and not.... And a bunch of Chevy impala's too. Did it all in 1 hr 15 mins!!! We were really rolling them thru there.... It was only 97* and there was a breeze so not too bad....the prep work on these (fleet reduction auction for Westar Energy) is intense, time consuming and exacting....the company demands a huge paper trail on each vehicle, which makes check in and check out at the actual auction some kinda Hell...we get to the lot at 7 AM and it's GO from the minute we get there til 5 hours later when we can pack up and go home.... They do two a year and people call us all year long wanting to know when the next one is... We have dealers, general public, employees, and on line bidders... We run the auction live on line.....we sold two trucks to a dealer in Sandusky , OH...and a couple in Indiana, I believe.
There were 87 registered bidders for the on-line live auction and about 200 people at the auction site as well..I clerk the auction and cashier and do the bookwork afterwards....

Sunday's auction almost killed us!!!It was a household goods auction and the house and 10 acres was up for auction also....it was 80* at 8:30 when Miche and I got there...the guys had been there since 7AM....they were soaked in sweat already and it got really hot after that...there was SO MUCH junque there!! And they just kept bringing more out!!! No matter where we went, the shade had just moved over...so the guys were in the sun all day....I was frantic, clerking, watching for signs of heat stress, keeping up with the guys, and trying to get through their "I'm OK, I'm tough and I can handle it" attitudes!!! The first one to go down was the youngest....that scared me..
Our concessionaires are wonderful...they were out every hour and a half replacing hot water with cold....and in the afternoon, when the heat index was 114 plus (actual temp 105) they kept coming around with mop rags soaked in ice water for our necks...Miche had brought gatorade for us and had a friend of hers bring more....that saved most of us...We survived the day....which is a tribute to Old Age!!! Our set up guy is 80 years old and he was there, working all day...Darrell and I are 65, we made it, none the worse for the wear; Darrell's brother, Terry, is almost 70, and he made it til about 3:00....before the heat got him....Miche mAde it, in the trailer (stinkin' HOT in there for sure), cashiering, with two fans to blow the hot air around.... She's AARP material, like the rest of us!! The two Eastman brothers, B J and Craig got through too....B J had a couple of issues with overheating ....but when I finally convinced him to take off his hat and look sweaty like the rest of us, he got thru that too....what a day!!!
It's just a barrel of laughs to be auctioneers.....
The seller got thru the day too.....he sat in the shade , nippin' all day on a bottle he found in his camper and by 6 PM, when we were done, he wAs SOOO gone he couldn't even stand up, let alone talk!!! Darrell took him home to his other house after the sale .....had to literally put him into the truck and walk him into his house.....guess he had a good day!!

What's New????

Tiny's back to being an "only cat" again....Ungrateful Alfred has gone back to the Barn ...After being gone for 2 1/2 months and returning 10 pounds lighter on the 22nd of November, he ate and slept and cuddled for a month and a half, gained back almost 8 pounds, got his groove back on,  and on the 8th of January, vanished off the deck. He has not been back since.... We've had -4* weather, wind chill factors of -24*, 10 inches of snow and winds of 25 mph sustained during that time....What are you betting???? Will Tiny and I see him again? Tiny says, "MEN!!!" as she snuggles on my lap, every chance she gets!!!
We're Knitting and Scrabbooking and pretending we don't care.... but we do......

Happy 2011....

 I am AMAZED at how fast the year has gone!!! It  just flew by..This New Year, I think I'll not make resolutions as such...I think I'll just try to improve on some "problem areas".

One of my favorite things to do is "make"....That includes all sorts of possibilities..Sewing, Knitting, Cross Stitching, arranging Floral Designs, Scrapbooking, Gardening Veggies and Flowers, adding new landscaped "features" to the Hill .. See where we're going here???  I'm Eclectic in all things...The particular "problem area" with this is I have at least 5 or 6 different projects going at any given time, and none of them get quite all the way done!!! Sooooo..this year, I shall really try to complete, start to finish a project at a time... I got the purses for Oklahoma finished and boxed and mailed off yesterday. That has freed me up to finish the present for my dear friend from Boston, who is coming in January for a visit (YAY). It's half done....and progressing nicely... Once that is accomplished, I have 6 "Pot Pinchers" cut out, ready to sew...These are so cute. I can hardly wait to work on them. I also have a Tablecloth with cross stitchable roosters in the corners, which I started in September while we were in California, for Miche's birthday or Christmas 2010...one Rooster is done...3 more to go...Valentine's Day present??? I've got a reallt handsome guy type scarf started too...but that got put down because I don't know any guys who wear scarves anymore...Do You??? Let me know so  I can wrap that one up too!!!! 

My only other TEENY little "problem area" is how to keep up with
the bookwork for Darrell, keep the cat and Marilyn hair down to a non-flying- around level, and make sure that there's a good meal on the table when Darrell comes home...which does NOT include a "Meal in a Bowl"!!!! 

I sure wish I knew how these other "Makers" keep it all balanced!!!!!! Later, Gaters