Early Christmas Gift!

Hello every one,
I got an early Christmas Gift last night!
Terri, Mark and I went to see GARTH BROOKS!!
Terri gave me the ticket over a week ago and the three of us went last night. It was a 3.5 hour drive to Greensboro N.C. and it was well worth it!
The MAN did a lot of his big hits and a few from his new album. It was a great show! I have always wanted to see one of his concerts, But never got the chance until last night.
I'm looking forward to his new album, and if I do not find it under the tree Christmas morning, I will be getting it the next day!
I'm so glad that he has come out of retirement and is making music again!
Terri made a lot of video's and if you go to my face book page, I will try to get some of them up over the next few days!
TOM

Terri's School Project

See, I did keep my word.
A few day's ago Terri asked me if I would help her with a School Project for her Photo class. Little did I know that she wanted to take a picture of me! But it ended up being 36 photo's! YIKES!!

Here is the final Picture she did and will turn in for grade

She titled it..."TOM AROUND THE HOUSE"

As I said, it took 36 shots to come up with this one. If your wondering, there are 17 of me in this one shot!
I think it's pretty cool! And the Pumpkin that I'm holding and the one on the steps is the same pumpkin (It's the one that I got from the plant I had come in the old Chicken yard!

So I better close for now and i just wanted to show you all the results of Terri's project.

Tom

Really!. I am back!

I mean it this time! Life can really knock you down. And I have to say I'm sorry to all of you who have followed this Blog over the years! I have been so out of it and all I seem to do is go to work and come back home to bed, Sleep and repeat!

Update on the Chickens...
18 laying Hens and they are still locked up in the Hen House. I still need to get a fence up and let them out to do what Chickens do! But I have to tell you that they are doing well and the Eggs just keep on coming!! Last year the flock of 8 Hens produced 1770 Cackle Berries...... well I added another 12 in early April and they have given us 2317 as of yesterday!! I sell some, Just last week I delivered eleven 18 count cartons to the Tidewater area in VA. And it's a good thing that we all like Eggs as we eat quite a few!

Terri is back in school and is doing well. She asked me to help her with a project for her photo class and I will be working on a post tonight to show you how that turned out.

The non-producing garden was just that...NON-PRODUCING!! I planted Potatoes, Onions, Beets and Tomatoes and nothing grew! I did get some  plants that came up in the compost, Tomatoes that were hit by our first frost the other night. And one Pumpkin plant that came up in the old Chicken Yard. It produced two Pumpkins, one of about 6 lbs and another that weighed a woppin 31.5 lbs!

I need to get off my lazy butt and get something done around here. I will work on that post latter today and hopefully get it posted tonight.

I hope that you will except my apology and will come back to see the other post tonight!

Tom

The worst that could happen!

I said that I would be back tonight and this post will be the hardest one I have ever written!
6 weeks ago my ex-wife was told that she had level 5 liver cancer and that there was not anything that could be done to treat it. She was going to die!
After spending the past month in the hospital, she decided that she did not want to die in the hospital and she wanted to go home. So a week ago we took her home and her care was taken over by Hos pic.
Her and my son Gerry have lived together sense our divorce to share expenses. He got up Sunday morning and she had passed sometime during the night.
We knew that she was going to die, but it happened so fast! We though that we had more time. Even the Doctors didn't think it would be this soon.
Her funeral was last Friday!
My Son is the one I am really worried about! they were really close and it hit him hard! But he is taken it one day at a time! And that's all any of us can do!

Kathleen Joanne Stewart

6 November 1956 - 21 September 2014

I'M BACK

I know, Where have I been?
 As if my last post was not bad enough! I though that things could not get any worse! But They did!! And life went from bad too rock bottom!
This will be a short post just to let you all know that my internet service is back up as of this morning and I will be back up tonight to explain where I have been and how I am trying to bounce back! And how life keeps knocking me down!
But there is a small light at the end of the tunnel! I will explain latter.
For now, I will close.
Just wanted to let you all know that I AM BACK!
TOM

So very long!

Hey everyone,
I know it has been way to long without a new post. And the only reason I can give is that "LIFE SUCKS"!!

The homestead is under a financial burden right now and there isn't any reason to believe that it will get any better any time soon! The Hospital stay  (Two separate times ) that took place a year ago February nearly broke the Bank! And I got so far behind in other bills that I get 2 - 3 phone calls a day from people wanting $$ that I do not answer the phone that much.

And the homestead has been neglected because of it! I do not have much of a garden in this year. The heavy rains in early Spring delayed get the garden worked up and seeds planted. And now we are in a drought with very little rain and highs in the 80 - 90's. And on top of that my heat  pump has been down for over a year! I used a few space heaters in my bedroom this past winter and now have a window air unit in that same room!

You know back when I was young and stupid, I though I had plenty of time to start putting away for retirement. But now that I'm old ( Saturday will be my 61 Birthday!) and stupid, It never happened. And I'm still working a full time job just to try and get a head a little bit.

But that's what my life is like! And I really did not want to post about that at all! I do want to let you know that I have not fallen off the face of the earth and that there are a few things that are still going on here! As the following photos will show!

As I posted earlier, I got 12 new laying Hen back on February 28th and this photo was taken the day I moved them from the brooder to the Hen House.

They will be 11 weeks old this Friday and still have a few weeks to go before they will start laying. This gives me 20 layers in the flock. The 8 older girls have been laying 5 eggs a day on average and have produced 810 eggs so far this year. I have been able to sell a few cartons of eggs and this has helped to pay for the feed!

And this is my sorry looking garden. Onions in the raised bed and Potatoes in the tires.

 

And this is the raised bed I set up to plant Tomatoes in. I set up two of theis and planted two plants in each.  They are not doing very well and what fruits that did start to grow were taken by the Crows! 

This past winter was really hard and a lot of the plants that normally come back each year did not make it threw the cold weather. One plant that did not make it was a gardenia plant that Terri had in her front yard. This plant was at least 11 years old and had been coming back each year bigger and produced more flowers each year. But not this year! A lot of people lost the same type plant!

So Life goes on with a lot of bumps and lows. And I just couldn't find the energy to get a post up until now! And I'm sorry if I sound like I'm crying in my beer (Can't afford that eathier!). But I will try to get a better post up in the next few days!

Tom

Will it never end?

In my last post I said I had a 3 day week-end coming and I would spend the 3 days building fence panels for the Dogs yard and the New Chicken Yard! What is the old saying "The best laid plans of mice and men".

The first day off was Sunday and it was a really nice day. I got some pallets broke down and a
lot of the wood stained (I love this DIY stain!). Also got some of the wood that I could not use burned.

But yesterday the Sun never shined. When I got up, It was overcast and it looked like rain. But I still wanted to get something done. So out to the pallet area I went and after I got all the tools out, Here comes the rain!
My work shop is so full of wood that I can not work in there, So everything was out side! And with an extension cord from the house as my only power source and the chop saw out in the rain, I called it quits for the day. Put it all away and came into the house.

Then late last night (about 2200) the real storm hit! A line of thunder storms that dumped a lot of rain and had high winds (gusts up to 40 MPH!!), Lasted for over an hour!

And this is what it look like first thing this morning......

Yep, the swimming hole is back!

This is the only part of the garden I have been able to get planted! The tires are planted with two kinds of potatoes and the raised bed has onions and Beets!

And this is the area I call the pallet work area. It's flooded too!

They are calling for more rain and Thunder storms for the next 3 or 4 days. And I know that somewhere down the road we will have our normal drought period, But does not look like it will get here any time soon!

What I really need is another building, bigger than the one I call the Work Shop (12 X 16) that I can at least move some of the pallets inside to work on. And it has to be big enough to allow me to move all my power tools in too!

I went by the place where I got the Work shop to see if they had any returned buildings on the lot and found two that would be perfect. Much bigger then what I have now, But there is no way I can work ether of them into my budget right now or in the foreseeable future! So another building will have to go on my wish list and wait until I become Rich and Famous!

So today I will do laundry and use the dryer because the Sun will not make an appearance today! And maybe I will do another post, An update on the new Babies That I really need to get out side and out of the brooder!

Until then, Maybe I need to think about getting a set of water wings!
Tom