31 Days of My Real Farm Life - Day 5



31 Days of Life on Our Farm!



Today in North Alabama, the temperatures were in the 80's.  Very nice if you need to be outside.  Our day started at 6:00, as usual.  I sat down in chair in ouroffice, and the phone rang.  Daughter #3 was on the phone, and was going to drop GrandBoy off at the road, if I would meet her there.  Our driveway is a half mile long.  No exaggeration!  So I met her at the mailbox, and picked up our boy.  When I got back to the house, the rest of the household was up, wondering where I had gone in my pajamas.  But they soon knew because GrandBoy let them know he was home as soon as he came through the door!  Daughter #1 watched him since it was her day off.  She also went grocery shopping and worked on party food for her Dad's party.

This  morning Pappy dropped off his trailer so the "barn dismantlers" could fill it with old hay.  Last night, the head guy helped Pappy load all the metal onto another trailer, and Pappy and GrandBoy unloaded it this afternoon.  GrandBoy would lift the corner of the next sheet, and hold it like that until Pappy came back from moving the previous sheet of metal.  GrandBoy was helping.  As he would say, he was "working"!

This is a sheet of the metal we purchased.  The barn was over 100 years old, with hand-carved oak beams and hand made nails.  We saved a couple of nails.  Pappy may buy some of the beams, when the guy decides how much he wants for them.  Pappy wants me to look up the metal we bought and see if it is 100 years old.  We will see.

Pappy went to Tennessee today and worked on one of the pastures we rent.  He sprayed the fence line and ditches.  He also checked all the fencing.  You have to have good fencing if you are going to keep cows.

The mobile home movers finally got finished.  They called me at 10 and wanted to get paid.  I told them I could meet them after 12, when I got off.  They wanted to come to my office.  I said "no".  We waited two days for them to get started.  They can wait 2 hours for me to get off.

When I got through going to the post offices and bank, I went by the house to pick up GrandBoy.  He and I went to the local elementary school where GrandBoy will go in the fall.  They have three year old preschool there.  GrandBoy could have gone this year, but his birthday is 2 weeks late.  He will definitely go in the fall.  The Preschool program is new here, and not available at each school.  So I wanted to make sure this program wasn't income based, and what the requirements were to attend.  The program is for any three year old who lives in the district.  So GrandBoy will definitely be going!  He was excited when he saw the playground.

Then we went to the local thrift store to return a vacuum cleaner I bought Saturday.  It didn't work, and I had 5 days to return it.  We looked around and picked up a few items.  GrandBoy wanted to look at the toys.  So that was the first stop.  We bought a bull dozier to play with in the sand box for 50 cents.  GrandBoy got a shirt, and Pappy got 2.  I got a book (but don't tell Pappy.  I told him I was trying not to buy any more books.  This made him very happy.).  I also got a Home Interiors Christmas picture that is framed.

Next stop was to Daughter #3's work.  This is GrandBoy's mom.  She works at a thrift store in the next big town to where we live.  I was carrying her some items that were at our house that she needed.  And while we were there, she asked me to pick up a few items for her.  She can't shop on a day she works.  She got some Christmas place mats.  I got some leg warmers to wear under my skirts, and some new Puma socks.  I also got Bubble bath.  I love bubble bath. I also got a rug for the bathroom, and a woven piece that I would like to make a rug out of.  We will see.

For dinner, I made hash out of the pork roast I cooked the other day.  I started by frying potatoes.  I love fried potatoes, but don't eat them often.  I added onions, green bell peppers, and a tomato that needed to be eaten.  When those veggies were cooked, I cut up the roast and let it heat through.  I added my favorite Soul Food Seasoning.  It was delicious.

Other than that, I'm still hanging out laundry, and I fed the chickens.  That about covers it here for the day.

Oh, I forgot to tell you.  Remember the guy who is in charge of barn demolition?  After I left yesterday, he told Pappy that he remembered where he knew me from.  Pappy said, "Well, where do you know her from?"  He said his brother used to rent from me.  And then he said, "And you know, she used to be married to a cop".  I was appalled that he thought I was divorced!  But Pappy thought it was funny.  He told the guy, "No, man, I am that cop". See Pappy has not cut his hair in the year he's been retired, so it is getting pretty long.  I guess he didn't look like a cop to that guy.  I guess it was pretty funny.  As long as I'm not divorced.  Honey 

31 Days of My Real Farm Life - Day 1

31 Days of Life on Our Farm!

Hi!  A few days ago, I saw on The Modest Mom Blog, where she was going to link to a series for 31 Days.  She is going to talk about femininity.  That was a few days ago, so I still had time to think about it.  I thought that would be a good thing for me to try, to commit to posting on a single topic for 31 days.  I had forgotten, but I also knew about two months ago, that another blog I follow, MOD, was also going to participate. 

This morning when I got up, I saw on twitter the buzz about "31 Days".  It took me a moment to remember what exactly that was.  Then I realized it was October.  End of the months, and First of the months are busy for me.  I am a property manager and real estate investor with my husband.  We also have a farm.  At the end of the month, I am trying to make sure all the rent is collected, and any evictions that have not paid are forwarded to my attorney.  The first of the month, I am trying to shove rent money in the bank as fast as I can gather it up.  We have mortgages to pay, you know! 

So somehow I forgot that it is October now.  I guess because it is Saturday, and I didn't have to think so fast today.  When I noticed all the talk about 31 Days, I went over and looked at the links.  I tried to think of what topic I would write about if I were going to participate.  I really need to work for 31 days on "putting my husband first"  or "letting my adult children go"  or something like that.  My husband would say I need to working on "keeping a cleaner house". 

I am not a computer geek.  When I tried to link to the host site the first time, my button process didn't work very smoothly.  No photos popped up, so I chose a photo of our farm sign.  I thought a template would come up, because most of the buttons looked the same.  I never saw that.  Somehow my first button didn't work because the address was wrong.  So I made a second one, using my real blog button.  Since my button says "My Real Farm Life"  I guess that narrows down what I will write about.  Life on our farm.  For thirty-one days, I will tell you what we do each day on our farm.  I may still throw in a little about how I will try to remember to put my husband first, like a good Biblical wife.  Or how I am going to make our kids solve their own problems, as I was told I need to do.  And I WILL get this house clean before company comes from Texas on an unknown mystery date in the next month or so.  (That is how they do it in Texas, I guess.  They tell you ahead of time they will be coming soon.  Then they call and tell you they will be here in 3 days.  The next thing you know, they are having dinner in a town an hour away!  But we always have a good time when they are here, and if they notice my dirty house, they don't tell me.)

I hope you all stop by and keep me accountable on this new journey for me.  I hope to see you back here tomorrow!  Today on the farm, we will be making grape juice to can, and moving cows.  I'll write more about that later.  I just wanted to post something quickly in case you stopped by.  I hope you stop by!  Honey

This is a photo from our farm.  Our pole barn is on the left, and the Club House, as my husband calls it, is on the right.  That is where we have parties, and I do some of my canning.