October 26, 2023

            Well, its here! We got the rain, and it is still raining. I haven’t gone outside to check the free rain gage yet, you don’t want this sweet ole person to melt in the rain, DO YOU?

            Let’s see what happened yesterday: it was about 3:00pm and the Don was getting ready to head over to the school to get the grandkids when he heard a dog barking. Now this sound of a dog barking came from just outside the ole office door, was it a dog barking, he asked himself, how could I know unless he opened the door. But if I open the door will the dog, who is barking, come after me, the Don asked himself. What should I do, I need to leave but I hear a dog barking just outside my door. The Don slowly opened the door and looked toward the driveway; there it was the neighbor's dog coming at me. What should the Don do, I stood still and said, hello girl, did you get out? Then I saw the neighbor coming up the driveway hoping to catch the little dog. Yes, he was able to subdue the little dog and get her back home.

            Adventure over, what else did the Don do yesterday? Well having no plans to do any work, it came to the Don that he might try to remove a few limbs that hang over the roof of the house. He then went to the shed and procured the tree trimming pole and brought it to the house. The Don then attempted to cut a small limb, but to no avail. When I pulled the rope to cut the limb the spring that was supposed to pull the blade back, would not.

            The Don then decided to see if he could make the spring stronger by reducing the size of the spring. Have you ever tried to make a spring stronger, don’t. Springs are made to keep their form, and if you try to change the size or just bend a part of the spring you will find that it is much more difficult than one might think.

            Now the Don has more ability than many ole people, and he was able to make the spring a little tighter, and it does now open the cutting blade of the limb trimmer. I did cut a few small limbs and I have a photo of a couple. I took the photo to show the number of acorns that are still on my trees.

            With all the rain this morning, I don’t think the Tres will take me for a walk. It is Thursday and we hope to go out for supper this evening, the rain may let up by then.

            That’s it for now, have a wet day, and try to be safe and careful when driving.

Spring changer!

Senior person who might go sit on the porch and watch it rain, Don the Ford

May today be better than your best day, but not as good as tomorrow!

October 25, 2023

            Another dark but very warm morning here in Hewitt Texas. Yes, we have had some nice rain, and they say there is more coming. Hay, they are predicting possible flooding to the west of us tonight and tomorrow.

            As to yesterday, I did very little other than enjoy the rain. Now my favorite wife worked her butt off all day yesterday. (I am allowed to write butt, aint I?)

So let us compare workloads. I worked about 5 hours re-lighting the angel; I did take a couple breaks in the process. My favorite wife worked about 12 hours, not counting the time it took to purchase the items and to cook the meat. There is mixing the masa which is time consuming in itself, and getting all the items needed like the corn shucks ready.

With all the needed ingredients on the table she began making the tamales one at a time, and this goes on for hours. When the tamales are made, they have to be cooked (steamed) for about 45 minutes. then they have to cool off, and get bagged for the freezer.

Now there is another part to this story, the freezer is full and my hard-working wife plans to attempt to move some of the items around so she can put them in the freezer today, yes, they are in the refrigerator now. Is she done with the tamales? Nope, she will be making more later.

Finally, everything needs to be washed, and the pots, pans, and very heavy mixer needs to be put away. I did help carrying a couple items.

Personally, it would be difficult for me to even consider putting that much effort into any project, unless it could be broken up into 2 hour work periods.

We did get to sit outside for a while yesterday afternoon, while some of the tamales were cooking (steaming) and it was raining. The rain seemed to be one of those slow relaxing rains that one can enjoy. No wind, no lightening, just the nice sound of light rain.

I should note, as we sat on the front porch during the rain, I observed a bird fly to the bird house which was about 4 feet above where we were sitting. I guess we did not seem to be aggressive, and he wanted to get in out of the rain. 

I have nothing planned for the day other than the dog walk which was cut short yesterday morning as it started to rain and we quickly returned home. My favorite wife usually goes grocery shopping on Wednesday, I will offer to go along, but I doubt that she will want me there.

I did pick up a few acorns yesterday, and our neighbor has been collecting them from his yard.

That will be all for today, have a good day, stay safe and pray for Israel.

Acorns are not fun!

Senior ole person who don’t work as hard as his favorite wife, Don the Ford

May today be better than your best day, but not as good as tomorrow!

October 24, 2023

            As I sit here at the Ford’s ole computer, it came to me, I don’t have anything to talk about today. Yesterday, Tres and I walked, nothing unusual happened. I did leave the Ford’s homestead to go to the cleaners, where they clean clothes, and they also try to clean ole people of their money.

            It was sprinkling some rain drops when I left to go to the cleaners, the sprinkles stopped about the time I was leaving Hewitt city limit. The sprinkles started again about the time I was returning to the Hewitt city limit sign. Were the little rain sprinkles just for us in Hewitt? It did rain more in the afternoon, just about the time I was getting ready to go to the bible study. All in all, we did get less than ½ inch rain in the free rain gage yesterday, let’s see what we get today.

            I did go to Bible study early yesterday; they were having a meeting as to how to study better. They presented a method that the leaders of the groups use as they prepare for the weekly lessons. To me it is a more intense way of understanding what you are reading. I will work with it some, but probably not as much as they do.

            Today we are supposed to have more rain, and if it isn’t raining, I plan to walk the dog, and I will also get the kids from school this afternoon. Now you see, I have nothing to write about.

            My favorite wife is in the kitchen right now putting together the needed items for the tamale manufacturing. Tamales are not easy, first she purchases all the needed items, then she cooks the meat, then I get the heavy mixer and a big pan for her, then she mixes the masa. She gets the corn shucks wet; she puts all these items on the table, and she sits there for hours putting the tamales together. After the tamales are made, she puts them in a pan and steams them. When they are cool, she puts them in bags of a dozen, and places them in the freezer. We usually end up with 20 plus dozen, that is too much work for one person.

            My favorite wife learned to make the tamales from some friends, I think there were four of them and they worked as a team making tamales.

            I guess I could get a cup of homemade coffee and take a short break before I walk the dog. We hope you have a good day, be happy and try to be safe, don’t take too many naps!

Tamale eater

Senior ole person who has nothing to write about or to do today, Don the Ford

May today be better than your best day, but not as good as tomorrow!

October 23, 2023

            Good Monday morning to one and all, that includes you too. I am starting the day with no big plans and my favorite wife will be working all day, again. Yesterday she worked on cleaning the house and getting ready to make the tamales. She did go to the grocery store yesterday, (do they still refer to stores as grocery stores, maybe it is just us ole people who do) to purchase needed supplies for the tamales such as, corn shucks, masa, meat, spices and I don’t know what else she bought. I do know there was meat cooking in the Ford’s ole kitchen all night and she is starting another round again this morning. I think she has decided to build the tamales this week.

            Now did the Don do anything yesterday, yes, he did. He moved the ole van out of the garage, he sat up a couple tables, and he worked for about 5 hours on the angel. Now we all know the Don did take a few breaks during the day. The Don would remove a short piece of the ole rope light from the angel, then place the new rope light in the place of the old. You might think that is odd, but the rope lights do not take one easy path, nope, they cross each other, some go over and some go under, some go side by side for a while.

            If I would have removed one entire rope light and then tried to replace it with a new rope light, I would still be out there working. It took me about one hour for each rope light to remove and replace. First, I cut the old wire ties off, then remove that portion of rope light, replace that portion of rope light, attach the wire ties, tighten the wire ties, cut the ends of the wire ties off, then start on the next section.

            I was using my ole senior hands with two different tools, a plier and wire cutter, to a point that my hand actually cramped up. That is when I took a break.

            When the work was finished and after I had swept up all the ole wire ties that had been cut off, and the ends of the new wire ties that had also been cut off, and the tools and tables put away, I then proceeded to move the large angel to its place by the tree. I was able to get it chained back to the tree and the power connected.

I have two photos, before and after. 

 

            After all the work we both needed a rest, so we proceeded to the swing set by the driveway where we rested. We did have friends to come over and converse with us for a while. That was a nice end to the work filled day.

            I know my present wife has a bunch of work planned for the day, I do need to go to the cleaners and pick up my cleaning, and I guess I will go for a walk with the Tres. We hope you have a good and rest filled day, also try to be safe in all you do.

He’s and angel!

Or did he, the senior ole person just re-light an angel, Don the Ford 

 

May today be better than your best day, but not as good as tomorrow!

October 22, 2023

            Happy Sunday morning, even though the sun is not up yet. What do we have planned for the day? At this time, we plan to start the angel relighting. I was able to get it down, that is away from the tree and flower bed, and into the garage yesterday. Basically, it was chained to the tree, so I had to disconnect the chain, which wasn’t easy, then I had to pick it up out of the flower bed. This angel weighs at least 50 pounds, it is taller them me and it is close to 4 foot wide, so it is not easy for an ole senior person to handle.

            Today the van will be displaced from the garage and will stay out until I get the lighting complete. The van sitting outside will make it difficult for us to see people as they drive or walk by, during our relaxing period outside, in the afternoon. I guess things can’t be perfect for ole people.

            My favorite wife and I did venture forth from the Ford Homestead yesterday, I wanted to get an item from the Harbor store, where I saved 30% off a six-dollar item, we had lunch at the deli, it was not very good, and we stopped at the store that has items up to 70% off. We purchased a couple items there and then headed for home.

            Before anyone asks, we did wash the dog yesterday, he smells better today. While we were outside with the dog, we noticed something that we found interestingly odd. We saw what appeared to be flocks of buzzards flying over. They were mostly going in the same direction with the occasional circling from a couple. We wondered if they were really buzzards or some type of bird that looks like buzzard heading south for the winter. There are 17 birds in the photo, and there were plenty more flying by.

            I did see something that I found interesting; it is a cloud formation. Now when I saw this, I first thought could it be smoke, but if so, how many fires. I determined that it was clouds, and if any of you have an imagination, which I am sure at least one of you do have, you might see the outline of a giant’s legs. So, in the photo we might be seeing the bottom of a ghost like space alien, maybe a precursor to the coming Halloween, or just some interesting clouds. 

            I guess I will stop for now, we hope your day is fun and that everyone stays safe.

Ghost alien at Halloween?

Senior ole person who has an imagination, Don the Ford

May today be better than your best day, but not as good as tomorrow!

October 21, 2023

            Well, it is Saturday again, wow time passes too fast. Let us see what I did yesterday. I did allow the Tres to take me for a morning walk, that all went well. My favorite wife and I went to the home store to get a Christmas tree. This is an outside tree which will be positioned in the front yard. Arriving back home I placed the tree in the corner of the garage and started my projects.

Now I had planned to strap the limbs down on the trailer, I had planned to check the air pressure in the tires of the trailer, I had planned to pull the trailer from the back 40 to the driveway, and then check the taillights on the trailer. 

            I did all that, and I was unable to fix the taillights on the trailer, so when I take the limbs to the dump today, I will not have trailer lights working. I usually try to be one of the first people there and then wait in line a while, this morning I plan to wait at home and go later hoping there will be no line. After removing the trailer from the back 40 I went to the so-called hot house to remove three 40-pound bags of so-called topsoil, which I dumped in the location where the trailer sits, this soil is not a very good dirt and it for sure isn’t topsoil. As I was in the hot house, I noticed the thermometer was broken, it seems as if it got too hot during the heat waves we had, and it broke, I guess the hot house gets hot, photo to follow.

            I had also planned to get the string trimmer and trim the areas in the back 40 yesterday, which I did. I had not planned on mowing the back 40 as a lot of it did not need to be mowed, but I did get the ole riding mower out and mowed the back 40. Allow me to point out that I was doing all this work in the afternoon, and I did need to go get the grandkids from school. Well, I started the mowing process then I remembered that I had not picked up the Poopa-Loopa from the back 40, so I stopped the mower and picked it up. As I was completing that task, I noticed that I had not rolled the hose up from the back 40, so I did that and then I could start the mowing.

            Mowing complete I needed a bath but there was no time, so I brushed off the grass clipping from my legs and feet washed my hands and face and got ready to go to school and pick up the grand kids.

            Returning from dropping the kids off, we should have washed the dog, but my wife was working on a project in the house, so I went outside and started my happy hour, alone. It took a while for my wife to come outside, and a friend came over and sat with us. Our conversations went from olden days, to politics, and as usual the bible and our thoughts about the bible.

            Towards the end of the outside happy time, it seems as if the mosquitoes were trying to have their happy time with us. I excused myself and went into the house, my first wife came in a few minutes later. We were both able to find some leftovers for our supper.

            Finally, I was able to drag my ole worn out body into the shower where I revitalized myself. If you don’t know the meaning of the word revitalized, look it up.

            My plan for today, after the Tres and I walk, after I take the limbs to the dump site, after I put the trailer back into the back 40, I plan to bring the angel in from the front yard and start replacing the rope lights. That will be a time-consuming task. 

            Well, I guess that will be it for now, we hope you have a nice day, and that your projects, if you have any, are all easy, and we want you to be safe.

House of heat!

Senior ole person who needs to get going it is almost sun rise, Don the Ford

May today be better than your best day, but not as good as tomorrow!

October 20, 2023

            I wish I had something interesting to write about but I don’t. All the stuff I put on these postings are, just basically things I want to do, have done or should do. I know these are of no interests to you all, so just let me know if you want to stop receiving these emails, and I will take your name off the email list. I don’t want to be a bother to you.

 

            Yesterday not a lot happened, I did pull weeds from part of the back 40, yes, I was on my knees both in prayer and work. I did get some of them pulled but when one pulls these weeds, they should do it after a rain. It is very annoying when you attempt to pull said weed and you do not get the roots, you know it will be back soon.

            During the walking of the dog yesterday, I did again notice the faded blue rag laying against the curb, but in approximately the same location as it has been for a couple months now. The weather people are saying we have chances for rain almost every day next week, if we were to get a good rain the rag (aka litter) will likely be washed down the street.

            Tres and I did come close to an orange and white young cat yesterday. Now we have seen this young cat before, but this time he /she was laying against a bush not more than 5 feet away from the curb. I assume the cat thought laying still we would not see it, but Tres got happy and started jumping around, so the young cat ran across the yard and up a tree. We then saw two other cats in the same yard but further away, the big cat may have been mom, and there was a multi colored young cat next to her.

            I text my neighbor who has been gathering acorns for a friend and told him I had a container for the acorns, when did he want me to get them. He said let me put my shoes on, so I headed that way. I went to his side door and sat down on the bench. After a few seconds I got a notice that someone was at my front door, so I got up and look to see who was at my house. Yep, it was my friend, he had carried the two 5-gallon buckets of acorns up to my house. I then proceed to pull my ole red wagon back home to get the acorns. The acorns are now in the container waiting for the other friend to come and get them.

            My favorite wife and I did go to the George restaurant yesterday afternoon, the food was good, the service was also good. When we returned home, we sat outside and enjoyed the quiet neighborhood and nice weather for more than an hour.

            Today, I think I will be allowed to follow my first wife to a home store this morning, as she wants to get a new outside Christmas tree, and it is in a big box. After we get the tree, I will bring it home and she will do her Friday store hopping, I mean she will go shopping.

            Back home I need to tie down the limbs on the trailer, check the air in the tires replace a tail / break light on the trailer, pull the trailer up out of the back 40 to the drive way, that way it will be ready for tomorrow morning, going to dump the limbs.

            I will need to get the Alex and the Gabi from school today, I have learned that next week’s eight grade football game has been canceled, as many of the opposing team members failed some classes.

            I guess I will stop for now, Tres is in here and is wanting to go for our walk, he also needs to get a bath today, he stinks.

            We hope your day is interesting and safe, try to be nice to at least one ole person.

Uninteresting post

Senior person who need to get moving, Don the Ford

May today be better than your best day, but not as good as tomorrow!

October 19, 2023

            It is Thursday again and as usual I have nothing to do today and nothing to write about.

We hope you have a good day and as usual, be safe.

Nothing day!

Senior ole retired person who might get a cup before we go for a walk, Don the Ford

May today be better than your best day, but not as good as tomorrow!

 

The Don is thinking;

            Well, I have finished that short blog post, and now I don’t know what I want to do. It is too early to go for a dog walk, I have had my glass of milk and my breakfast sandwich, the news is all about the war in Israel. I have already gone out to the front yard with Tres, we still go out every morning even though we don’t get a news-paper any more. I noticed that Tres did defecate in the front yard, sorry, for that one person and we know who you are, defecate means the same as Poopa-Loopa.

            It isn’t as cool as it has been, I think the temp is about 61 degrees this morning. I wonder, could I do some work in the back yard today? I did pull weeds from the #1 and #3 berry beds yesterday, and my ole body isn’t as tired as I thought it might be. I could get the weed eater out and do some trimming, or I could get back down on my knees again and after praying I could pull some weeds from the back 40. I have always called these weeds wire weeds and they have a tendency to pop up all around, especially when the grass has been stressed with less than adequate rain fall. It would require a bunch of crawling as these weeds are not in just one small spot.

            I guess I should put the straps over the limbs on the Ford’s ole trailer, I do want to take it to the dump site this Saturday. My favorite wife wants me to move a big flower into the hot house, this move will require someone like my son Dave to help me. Even with help it is not an easy task.

            My friend down the street had a bunch of acorns collected and I need to go get them today. I can use the ole red wagon, or I have a big container that I think has wheels on it and I might use it.

            Today is Thursday, it is, “go out to supper night”, I guess I should stop by the bank to get the weekly stipend. Heck, I guess I do have some things to do today, glad I sat here and thought about things.