January 8, 2024

            Good morning to everyone. As I sit here at the Ford’s ole computer, I noticed a person walking down the street with his dog. Now it is 7:00am, and it is still dark outside. This fellow has pants and jacket that have florescent strips on them, which I assume is so the people in cars can see him. How did I see him while I am at the computer, she asked? Our motion detecting light came on as this person walked down the street, and I saw him on a security camera.

            I must be careful each morning when the Tres and I go out, Tres does not have a lead on and if this person and his dog came by while we were out, I am sure Tres would want to say hello.

            Did I do anything yesterday? I did go with my favorite wife to the cracker store for lunch yesterday. I wanted her to rest and I did not want her to cook a meal for us. The food was fair, the service was poor, the place was full of people.

            I did pick up the acorns that were along the street yesterday and I was able to blow some of the grass away as I removed the acorns. I now have a barrow full and the ole red wagon is also full.

            As I am looking at the security cameras, I can see it is windy outside, and the driveway is wet, so there must be some light mist present. Molly is out on the driveway and there was a rabbit in the front yard which would have been maybe 30 feet away from Molly. The rabbit was sitting very still, and I do not know if Molly even saw the rabbit, but when she moved a little the rabbit ran away quickly.

            I have no plans for today, we do start the bible study class again this evening. We have had a 3-week break, so I guess we should get back into the learning process. I find it interesting to hear other members comments as to how they understand the same thing that I have read.

            It is starting to get light outside this morning and everything looks a little wet. The grandkids start school tomorrow, so I will not need to get them from school today.

            One of our neighbors bought a new truck and I got to look at it yesterday. The truck seemed to have everything you could imagine in it, and I asked him why did his new truck have my name on it? You might be able to figure out why my name was on his new truck, without me telling you. It was not a Chevy.

            Well, it is time for me to stop now. We hope you all have a good day, please be safe and try to stay out of the rain.

Take it easy day!

Senior ole retired person who knows how to, “take it easy”, Don the Ford

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

January 7, 2024

            We made it back to Sunday again and we hope everyone will have a good day. The Don has no plans for the day, may it be a day of rest for us all.

            Let us see if the Don did anything yesterday. The day started out as a cool day so the Don stayed inside most of the morning. As the day progressed, and as the temp warmed up the Don was able to get outside and continue raking the front yard. The Don worked from around noon to about 2:00pm when he decided to take a break. During the break the Don drove into town yesterday to get a bottle. Now the Don was not out of the adult beverage, but he both needed a rest period, and he did not want to be out of beverage.

            Returning to the Ford homestead the Don decided to finish the raking of the front yard. About half of the last area that I was attempting to rake had been raked about a month ago, and there were mostly acorn caps, these will be trashed.

The Don also sent a text to a good friend asking if he wanted these acorns for the deer to eat where he hunts. He will come by next week and take the acorns. I have the ole red wagon with acorns in it and I will be filling the ole trash can with acorns. The left-over acorns can be thrown away.

            I noticed something as I was raking the acorns, I would hear a dog in the distance bark and then Tres would join in. I had never noticed him doing that in the past. Also, there were some crows that were making noise during my working process.

Once I had completed my work I needed a rest, so I and my favorite wife sat outside for a while. She worked all day attempting to put decorations away that were used inside the homestead, and she also needed a rest. The weather was nice and after about 45 minutes it began to get cool so we both returned to the inside of the homestead.

The Three Stooges were on, but I get tired of seeing the same ones all the time. It is as if they only have a few that they can show.

Well, I guess I will stop for now, please have a safe day, and take time to rest, as I know you work too hard. 😊

Raking done pickup to do.

Senior retired person who doesn't like hard work, Don the Ford

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

January 6, 2024

              It is a chilly morning here at the Ford homestead, 36 degrees. I have a couple things I might start to do today, or not, it depends on how this ole senior person feels as the day warms up. We are supposed to get a lot of sun and some decent temps as the day progresses.

              Yesterday: the Don only left the homestead to go get Dave from work, and then he, the Don was back at home. Now the Don decided to see if he could safely remove the electrical cords from the Christmas decorations in the front yard. If you had been paying attention you would have known that the Don unplugged the electrical cords from the power source, aka the house, previously. Yesterday, the Don was attempting to unplug each decoration from the unplugged extension cords, without missing with the decoration itself. There is a lot of tape and plastic bags used when these decorations are placed in the yard. Electricians tape and plastic bags help keep the rainwater out of the connections.

              I was successful at removing the cords and they are now ready to be stored until next year.

              The weather yesterday afternoon was warm and sunny, so my favorite wife and I did sit outside and enjoyed the nice afternoon. We noticed that the birds were talking to each other a lot, and the sparrows are still flying in and out of the bird houses and I am not sure why. Maybe they know that we are going to have an early spring.

              Today I might go back over the areas where I raked the other day and using the pecan roller pick up the acorns that have again dropped from that tree. If the weather warms up enough, I might rake more of the front yard to try and remove more acorns.

              When we start to remove the decorations, we will need to put a full day into the process. Bring all the continuers from the shed to the garage, (that is a major project) remove each decoration, take apart and pack each decoration, carry all the items back to the shed, stack the Christmas decorations to the back, fall decorations next, spring / easter items in front for easy access.

              As you can see, that is too much work for this ole senior person, but a real person would probably not have the ability to sort and stack the decorations correctly.

              Allow me to alter the conversation, ok it isn’t a conversation, it is a presentation: the other morning as I was sitting in the Ford’s ole recliner, I happen to notice that the Ford’s ole pot hound Tres, was laying on the couch, next to a Christmas decoration. Photo to follow.   

            I think Tres was comfortable laying there. I guess that will be it for now, I guess I will attempt to drag my ole body back into the TV room where my favorite wife is setting and see if she has anything for me to do.

            We hope everyone has a good day, please stay safe, and think positive thoughts.

Warm day coming?

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

January 5, 2024

            I checked the free rain gage this morning and it has about ¼ inch of water in it. It must have rained last night, but I did not hear it.

            Early Thursday morning My wife went to the rehab and while she was working out, I went to the coffee shop. Returning to the rehab, I sat there in the Ford’s ole Chevy with a cup of coffee in one hand and a bible in the other hand. Yep, I was able to read some interesting words while I waited on my favorite wife.          

I have a photo of me that I felt I should share. As you may see, I am tall with big legs and a small head. I was raking acorns when I saw the shadow and I knew you would like this photo.

            There were some big fluffy clouds floating around in the sky, so I also took a photo.

            Under those pretty fluffy clouds I was working hard raking acorns into piles. I did not pick them up yet, I am not sure what I want to do with them. As you may be able to see, I have much more yard to rake. I will be picking them up after this next rain is over. I will either give them away or trash them.

            You would have thought a neighbor would have come and helped an ole senior person rake the acorns, but no help was offered. I think it says in the bible, “love thy neighbor as thy self”, evidently the neighbors do not love themselves. (I was just kidding in that comment, we have real good neighbors.)

            After all that work yesterday, I went out to the so-called hot house, and it was hot, as the sun had been shining, and I watered the flowers one day early. It is supposed to be raining today, and I did not want to be getting out in the rain to water the flowerpots.

            After all that work my favorite wife took me out for supper. The chicken fajitas were good and the frozen margarita with salt was also good. Wow I worked in the yard yesterday and was allowed to eat that afternoon. 

I should note that my favorite wife was able to remove the third Christmas tree from inside the house today. We still need to work on removing the outside decorations, but the acorns seem to be getting most of my attention. When we start with the front yard decorations, we will need to have the garage filled with boxes and totes.

Molly is staying in the garage; and yes, she is now venturing outside of the garage at times. I noticed this morning that she has a small cut on her front leg. I guess she is getting out of the garage more than I thought, has she been fighting? While she is in the garage, she is at times willing to be petted, and at times she hides.

Acorn racker!

Senior ole person who has no idea what he will do today, Don the Ford

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

January 4, 2024

            Howdy from us to you, (us = my favorite wife and me) we hope your day is starting off good. We have fog here at the Ford’s homestead, and it was very dense about an hour ago, it is not as bad now. 

            The weather prognosticators are still saying we are in a drought, I have the feeling that we here at the Ford’s Homestead are no longer in a drought. We received an inch of rain recently, and the water is still standing in the back 40. Water standing tells me that the ground is not that dry and our drought is over, at least for a while.

Well, it was too wet for me to get outside and work, so I decided to go to the teller machine and get our weekly stipend, and then, since I was out and about anyway, go get a cup of real coffee. The wait in line was too long but the cup of coffee was good.

As I was driving from the Homestead yesterday morning, I noticed an older fellow on one of those electric scooters for ole handicap people. I do not know why he is handicapped, heck he may have been lazy and uses the scooter to get around instead of walking. The thing that caught my attention, he was smoking a cigarette as he was riding along the sidewalk. Could the smoking be what caused the disability in the first place?

I do not see a lot of people smoking now days, I know they do but we don’t see them. I find it interesting that some people still smoke in their vehicles. Now smoking in a house or in a vehicle leaves an odor and how bad the odor is, depends on how much a person smokes. I have smelled cigarette smoke from people smoking in their yard or on the other side of a fence, when Tres and I are walking along the street.

Swap the topic: I was watching the postal delivery person via a security camera, get out of his vehicle, carry a carton to a front door of the neighbor’s home, get back in his vehicle and drive off without fastening his seat belt, and the door he was sitting by was open. Not everyone follows the law about seat belts.

Squirrel and acorns: I believe I had commented on the fact that the squirrels in the back 40 were getting acorns out of the ole red wagon and eating them. I also think I had informed the reading public that the wagon had been emptied. I have seen the squirrels go to the wagon and look for acorns, when they do not find one, they head for the driveway where there are plenty of acorns. 

Late in the afternoon, during a short time when the sun was shining, Tres took me for a walk. It was a little cool but not too bad. Nothing exciting happened, so that is the end of that comment.

I did hear on the TV today about a cough that is going around. At one point they called it the 100-day cough, not that anyone coughed for 100 days but they may cough for weeks. They also said due to the fact that many people have not gotten their needed vaccines, that the whooping cough is on the rise. Now the whooping cough was something when I was a kid, but with proper vaccinations it was basically stopped. If it is on the rise, is it due to the lack of vaccinations, or could it be due to the illegal aliens coming into the United States.

Well, I guess I have written enough for this posting, we hope you have an interesting day filled with a lot of kindness and love, while you are being safe!

Get vaccinations!

Senior retired person who will remove decorations someday, Don the Ford

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

January 3, 2024

            Let’s see what happened here at the Ford homestead yesterday. First, we went to the rehab for my favorite wife and while she was there, I went to the coffee shop to get a cup. I returned the rehab location, and as I waited on my present spouse, I read from the bible.

We made it back home and I was doing nothing while my favorite wife was removing a second Christmas tree from the front room. This tree was behind my ole chair, now that it is gone, I can lean back all the way when I am napping. While she was working inside the house I went outside, and I decided to remove the acorns that I had raked up yesterday and put them in the trash. These acorns had been raked to the edge of the driveway, so I got a rake and pulled them onto the driveway. Then I swept them into a container and carried them to the trash can.

Later I had nothing to do so I decided to use the acorn picker upper and pick up some of the easy acorns that are in the flower beds. I picked up about a half a 5-gallon bucket in about 20 minutes.

Later, I saw a large pile of acorns that I had raked up the day before, that were next to the manger, and I had failed to see them when I was taking the other acorns to the trash cart. The trash cart had been emptied, so I collected them and put them in the bucket with the acorns that I had recovered from the flower beds, the 5-gallon bucket is now full.

Molly the cat is now in the garage, and I was able to talk to her without her hiding, and also pet her. After interacting with her for a while I walked away, and she came out of the garage and defecated in the neighbor’s yard. We did not see her return to the garage, but she did. Later it began to rain, and I went out to see if Molly was still in the garage, and she was curled up on a towel that I had placed on the chair. She may be getting to be more accepting of people, aka friendly. Photo to follow.

            Later in the day: we went to the dollar store (it is now a dollar twenty-five store, $1.25) and got nothing. I get my mints that I keep in the Fords’ ole Chevy pickup truck there, and they were out.  We then went to the drug store, aka pharmacy, to get my prescription eye drops and they were “free”. I asked why, and they did not know. Wow, “free” is good!

My first wife and I did not sit outside yesterday evening, it had rained a little and things were wet, also, it was very cool outside. The rain had been lite during the day, and during the night we got some heavier rains. The free rain gage now shows one inch of needed rain! There is water standing in the back 40.

Well, I guess I can stop for now, we hope you have a nice day, stay safe, and think at least one positive thought today. You might be surprised how a positive thought can improve your day.

Cat councilor!

Senior retired person who must stay inside today (I don’t want to melt) Don the Ford

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

January 2, 2024

            Ok, let's see if the Don did anything yesterday. It was very cool today and especially during the morning with that north wind blowing. I did not want to be outside before noon as it was cold. I did carry some items out to the trash can which was at the curb, one of the items was a wagon load of acorns. These acorns were acorns that I had raked up and they have some dead grass in them, so I emptied the ole red wagon into the trash can. I should tell you that I have seen squirrels going to the ole red wagon and getting acorns to eat.

            I had nothing that I really wanted to do yesterday, so I was just sitting around when I decided to take my favorite wife’s van and get some gas. Yes, she had suggested that it needed the gas but she did not force me to go. Actually, I wanted to get a cup of real coffee, and the coffee place is close to where we get gas. The coffee was good, the gas tank is now full.

            When I arrived back home, I decided to rake an area to see if I could get some of the acorns. I have a couple photos, first is an area before I raked, second is a pile of acorns but not all I raked. 

            If you look close at the first photo you can see acorns spread all around behind the manger display. The second is the pile of acorns I raked up and there were other piles of acorns, and I only raked a small area.

            Since I was outside, I did disconnect the electric from the outside Christmas decorations. I am hoping I got them all disconnected, and they do not come on after dark.

            I had been considering tightening the bolts in the Fords ole swing as it was making a lot of noise when we sat on it, and my favorite wife had found one nut on a bolt that she could tighten with her hand. I got the ratchet and went to work tightening the bolts. Heck every bolt needed a little tightening, especially the one my favorite wife had told me about.

The swing set tightened, we did sit outside a little while yesterday afternoon and the swing was not making the noise anymore. It was cool so we only sat out there about an hour.     

Molly is in the garage; she had been behind the toolbox which has always been a safe place for her to hide. Her food and water are there for her, and I did see her eating, so I put a sardine next to her food bowl in hopes that she enjoys it.

The above was written Monday afternoon, let's see if I add anything today.

It is now Tuesday; Molly did not eat the sardine even though she ate her dry cat food. I thought all cats like stinking fish.

Different subject: I now have to be very careful when I take Tres out front each morning, as there is someone who is walking his dog before the sun comes up. For the last couple days, I have seen this person and his dog around 6:15am, walk down our street. It would not be good if Tres went out and they happened to be there. I think everyone but me should stay on their own street, and the block they live on, and not walk past our house before the sun comes up.

Topic swap: we did have our black-eyed peas and salt pork to eat yesterday, which I think is a Missouri thing, as this is supposed to bring us good luck in the new year. We did have other food also.

Another thought: my favorite wife has a rehab session this morning. I guess I will be able to go get a cup of coffee while she is doing the rehab. We sure hope it helps with the back pain.

I guess I will stop for now, I am not going to mention that we are supposed to get a good rain today, but I will say, “Please be safe in everything you do”, and as usual, be nice to at least one person today.

Acorn raker.

Senior ole person who must not have anything to do, Don the Ford

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

January 1, 2024

            This is the first posting for this year, and I hope it is good. We are now into another new year, I did not party last night, I did go to sleep early as usual. More about my sleep later.

            Now my favorite wife and I did go to the Cracker store for lunch yesterday, and there was an enormous amount of people there. We had a 30-minute wait to get seated, the food was good, we got a free appetizer and a free drink. There aint nothing wrong with free.

            I did change the light bulb in the so-called hot house yesterday, maybe it will not be too bright tonight. We will turn the outside Christmas lights off after tonight, and I will start removing the decorations from the front yard, when my old body allows.  

The weather was so nice yesterday, the last day of the year, that my favorite wife and I went outside and sat for about 1.5 hours. Good warm weather in the 70s and a lot of sun light. That was a nice end to the ole year.

When we get the Christmas decorations removed, I want to cut a bunch of limbs that hang over the house, from the oak trees. That one tree is still dropping acorns on the house and yard. I still need to get the remaining leaves out from the flower beds in the front yard, and there are other leaves that I can pick up out back, but those are not a priority.

I did repair the wire, which was cut during our mowing the other day, the extension cord was 100 foot long, now it consists of two extension cords, one a little less than 60 feet long and the other is a little less than 40 feet long, photo to follow. 

             The above was written on 12/31/2023.

Below is written today, 01,01,2024.

Let’s see, yesterday was the last, and today is the first, wow, why do we make this a big deal? It is like saying, “Yesterday was normal and today is something special,” it isn’t a big deal.

Now let’s get to my sleep last night. I went to bed early as usual; Tres was upset do to the people setting off fireworks in the neighborhood. He was on and off the bed several times. Then at about 11:00 pm I heard my favorite wife, she was in the front room, calling out my name, saying Molly is in here. It seems as if Molly the cat decided to venture out from under the bed and act like a normal cat for a change.

Molly went over to the Tres and rubbed on him a little, she allowed my present wife to pet her, and when I was able to drag my ole body out of the bed and venture into the front room, Molly also allowed me to pet her. Now she looked healthy even though she has lost some weight. She followed me into the office area and when I opened the door she went out into the garage.

We have her food, water and kitty litter in the garage, and we expect her to stay there until she is fully back to normal. She will be able to stay in the garage and or go outside as we will leave the door up a little bit for her. It is nice that we did not need to trap her.

Topic change: I plan to disconnect the lighted decorations out in front of the house today, not sure when we will start to remove them.

Another subject: I see that our neighbors have their trash cans out at the curb, so I guess I will need to do the same. I do not know if they will be picking up the trash today, but it will not hurt to have it out there.

I guess that is it for now, we hope you have a good day, stay safe in all you do, try not to work too hard with that hangover you have.

Just another day!

Senior ole person who should do something but don’t want to, Don the Ford

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