Friends... 08/29/13

               As usual, those of us stationed here in, “The Ford Homestead Fortress” are doing well and we hope you are also.

The weather is still hot and dry which causes a retired person, on a fixed income, to need to decide whether he wants to “water the yard” or “have food to eat”. The truth is I could stand to lose a few pounds so I have decided to water the yard.

For those of you who have jobs and are able to spend money as you see fit you may not understand the necessity of deciding between food and taking care of the yard.

Let’s see if there is a bright side to watering the yard rather than eating. Obviously not eating could cause one to lose a few pounds but there is a lesser known activity that one can participate in, when watering.  You can take a shower in the yard at the same time that you are watering. I do however suggest that you wait until after dark to take the shower in the yard. Some neighbors are kind of nosey, when they see you nude in the sprinklers they may want to join you. I say let them use their own water.

If that same neighbor has a couple road killed squirrels or a possum that he/she wants to share, then you might consider letting them shower in your sprinklers.  

 

On a different subject;

Several weeks ago while enjoying my rocking chair on the driveway; I was approached by a couple young men wearing white shirts and ties carrying their bibles. They introduced themselves and we talked a while. I learned that they are Mormons and considered themselves as missionaries.

We talked for a while and they gave me a pamphlet to read. They also left one of their bibles and asked if I would read a certain passage. I said I would, they would drop by again next week.

When they came back the next week they had an older gentleman with them. I had read their pamphlet and the passage in their bible. They asked if I had any questions. I did and we discussed my questions. After some discussion I stated, “I doubt that I will be able to convert you and I know you will not convert me”.  I returned their bible and they left, none of us were upset.

They have dropped by a couple times since and we talk. They now have their bikes so getting around town is much easier. Yesterday when they rang the doorbell my wife said, “Your friends are here”.  I guess we have become friends in that we talk when they are in the neighborhood.

 

On a different subject;

School has started and we now have only Alex here as Gabi is in the first grade. With only one grandkid here it is less noisy, no fighting and somewhat lonely.

 

A different subject;

Today is Thursday, my least favorite day of the week. Why is it my least favorites day you ask; it is the day that my present wife cleans the house.

Cleaning the house is a good thing except when I need to use the boy’s room. It never fails she has just cleaned the boys room including mopping the floor, when I need to go. Obviously I am not allowed to walk on the freshly mopped floor until it has dried.

 

That is it from, “The Ford Homestead Fortress”;

I hope you have easy access to the rest rooms.

Don Ford

 

 

 

Who speaks for the cat?

               “Who cares, it is just a cat.” In some situations that statement can get you hurt or at least you will get “the look”. You know the look I am speaking of, it is the same look that women have successfully used to put children and men in their place for thousands of years. It is the look that is described as, “If looks could kill”. 

               Why would anyone need to speak for a cat? In our situation, Molly T has a very small voice; to be truthful she can hardly be heard. Now she does have a way to get attention but it is not with her voice. Molly T will run through the house quickly jumping on and off furniture and occasionally jumping on and off Tejas.

               Tejas on the other hand has been a vocal dog since he was a puppy. Tejas often make winning noises for no reason at all. Tejas seemingly has now taken on the responsibility of speaking for Molly T. Tejas may occasionally speak for Molly T just to get her out of the way.

               As some of you know, I occasionally sit outside in my rocker observing the grass grow. Ok, it is not occasionally, it is every day. Yesterday afternoon as I was observing the grass in my yard not growing due to the extremely hot and dry conditions, I was more or less in a trance when I heard Tejas whining. I turned to see what his complaint might be; he was lying on the floor of the garage stretched out and apparently comfortable.

He whimpered a second time and that is when I noticed he was attempting to “speak for the cat”. Molly T was sitting in front of the back door wanting to go inside. I was able to get up from my comfortable old rocker and let the cat into the house.

During this time Tejas continues to lay on the floor relaxing. Why didn’t I install a cat and dog door then I would not need to get up.

 

               The prognosticators are calling for a 50% chance of rain today; we hope they are correct.

As My wife of 44 years and I sat outside this morning enjoying our morning coffee and tea it began to rain “lightly”. Note that I did specify, “Lightly”, when referring to the rain.

In the real world this rain would be described as a sprinkle. I will go a little further in describing the rain as ¾ inch rain. On the drive way the drops of rain were about ¾ inch apart, thus a ¾ inch rain.

               On a totally diffident subject:

This morning as I was kinda watching the so called, “morning news”, I began considering the spelling of a word. The news was speaking of “bombs” and it occurred to me that the word bomb is spelled wrong. If mom is “m o m” then why isn’t bomb spelled, “b o m”. It just makes since Mom and Bom. I don’t know who decides how words are spelled but they should have come to me first.

I should point out that you are now being monitored by the NSA and other government agencies, due to the fact that you have just opened and read an article that included the word “bomb”. You are probably now on a terrorist watch list.

 

On a different subject:

We drained the grandkid’s swimming pool yesterday after they enjoyed one last swim for this summer. With school starting today, it was decided to drain the pool allowing the water to be siphoned off toward plants that needed some moisture.

 

Hope you have a quiet and restful day.

Don Ford

 

Snakes.

               Good morning to you, I hope you had an enjoyable weekend. Mine was boring and the hot weather didn’t help. Mine was excellent with several fun adventures…

               First I would like to state that I am not now nor have I ever been a snake person. These reptiles are able to co-exist with me due to the fact that they stay hidden most of the time. Occasionally I will venture outside my home and stroll around the property with my trusted companion and confidant Tejas. During these outside adventures we have intermittently seem the elusive and rare “Rattle Head Copper Moccasin”. (Additional information about this snake can be found in the March 14, 2013 posting) 

This particular reptile is thought to be extinct everywhere except on the Ford Homestead in Hewitt, Texas. That makes this snake an “endangered species” which means if your government found out that they exist on The Ford Homestead, the government would likely take the Homestead away from us in an effort to protect this reptile.

We had thought about having the History Channel do a story about the snake but decided against it for two reasons. First, the Government would know of the snake and secondly people from all over the world would want to come and see the rare reptile. There is too much traffic on our street avenue now and if the world knew we would never have any piece and quite. 

Back to my original reason for bring this almost extinct reptile up; Last week Alex had one of these, “Rattle Head Copper Moccasin” in his hand. He brought it to show me and even though it was small (a baby possibly 3 inches long) I could tell it was a deadly viper. Gabi, being a big sister and wanting to see that her brother was safe, also handled the serpent.

After some discussion we convinced “The Alex” to put the snake back into the flower bed. No human was injured during this transaction and none of the almost extinct serpents were injured.

All is well at “The Ford Homestead of Hewitt, Texas”.

 

We hope you have a comfortable day without serpents.

 

Don Ford

 

 

 

Summer continues 08/22/13

               It is still hot and dry at The Ford Homestead. I asked the neighbor lady to do the rain dance this time and she replied, “you made it rain last time you should do it again”. Have you noticed when you do something nice for others (such as the rain dance) they always expect more. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t so nice.

               We topped of the grandkids tree house/fort with a tarp serving as a roof. It isn’t real pretty but it may keep most of the bird poop off the floor.

 

               Gabi doesn’t look too enthusiastic in this photo; she may be saving her energy for the opening day of school next week. The summer school break seemed to have passed very quickly. 

               I have noticed that the days are getting shorter and the sun is more to the south reducing my shade when I sit in my rocker in the afternoon.

               Above is a photo of the desk project which now has a chair. The chair appears to be the same color as the desk until you take a photo with a flash, then you can see it is somewhat lighter. Since we are not continually taking photos, the color difference of the chair does not matter. My present wife purchased the chair, it had no seat. In other words the chair when purchased could have been used like a toilet seat.

               I made the wooden seat and attached it to the chair the my spouse added the padding and covered the chair.

I need to look through the draws of the desk; I do not believe I have removed all my tools and other items from the project.

               My poor yard needs rain and I need to mow. I would rather mow after a nice rain but if I wait for the rain the neighbors will likely begin to talk. I picked up toys from the back yard yesterday and need to do it again today. I don’t have any idea how those toys get spread throughout the back yard.

 

I hope you have a cool and rainy day.

Don Ford

 

Like a needle in a hay stack.

               As I searched, I began to think about hunting for a needle in a hay stack. Looking for a needle in a hay stack could be a daunting task but in one way it could be easier than what I was searching for.

               If I were searching for a needle I could be on my hands and knees and I might find the needle when it penetrated my hand or other part of my body. Being on my hands and knees in my yard would not be a good idea. I will probably find it when I mow this week and that will be too late as the mower blade will have eaten the piece of plastic.

               I guess it is better that it is plastic rather than glass, if it were glass and the mower shattered it someone could be hurt walking barefoot. With all the acorns that fall it is very uncomfortable to walk bare footed in our yard, so I guess it will not be a problem.

               As I searched the yard for the second time it occurred to me that rather than clear, if it was tented I might have a chance to find it.

               No luck, I need to get a quick shower and head for town to purchase another. I think they should put lock tight on the screws and that just might keep losses to a minimum.

               Why was I searching the yard? I felt something fall as I was moving the lawn sprinkler but I did not see anything so I did not stop at that moment. Later when I put my glasses on and realized I could not read anything I thought, something is wrong. I looked at the glasses and saw I was missing a lens.

               Replacing the lens cost more than I wanted to pay but I needed to be able to see.

 

Different subject;

               We are going to have the foundation people out to re-level the Ford House. The re-leveling is warrantee work but there is other work that will cost a small fortune. Donations will be accepted with a minimum suggested donation of $100.00.

 

               Hope you have a very nice day!

Don Ford

 

Saturday ride 8-17-13

               The morning started as so many mornings do, Tejas came to the side of the bed at 5:00am and woke me up. He has a habit of waking me at this time every morning. Sometimes he is just letting me know that he is there for me and other times, (like this morning) he wants to go outside. When he goes out he checks the perimeter of the Ford Homestead for killers, thieves, cats and rabbits. Sometimes he waters the flowers.

               I return to bed as soon as Tejas finished his reconnaissance of the area. I actually rolled out of bed about 7:00am Saturday morning and put the coffee on. I made my usual bowl of cereal and headed for my easy chair. After eating the cereal and drinking my 3 cups of coffee I made a stunning observation, it was cool outside. By cool I mean the outside temp was about 64 degrees. That is a perfect temp for starting a motorcycle trip.

               Where would I go?  I wasn’t sure of a destination but I wanted to ride while it was cool. I put some bottled water in a small cooler with ice and secured it to the back seat of my bike. I thought I might ride down to San Antonio for lunch at a sea food restaurant but that is 3.5 hours if you ride on the interstate. I decided I would ride out to Lampasas, TX and if I still wanted to go the San Antonio I would head south from there avoiding the interstate altogether.

I had ridden as for as Gatesville, TX when I observed a dodge dealer. I decided to pull in and look at a white Durango they had.  It did not have the accessories we wanted so I checked out some other vehicles. There was a white Town and Country van on the show room floor that seemed to have everything we wanted in a new vehicle. I tried to call my wife of 44 years but the phone was busy. After several attempts at calling I decided to ride home and see if she would want to go to Gatesville to see the van.

40 minutes later I was home and my present wife was cleaning the front room. If I was to tell you the house was a mess I would not be exaggerating. My spouse was willing to stop what she was doing to go look at a new van and I also promised her lunch.

As she was changing her clothes I took a quick shower and jumped into some clean jeans and shirt. The phone rang and it was my son Dave. He and Claire had just purchased a new washer and dryer and wanted me to bring the pickup to the store to transport the washer and dryer to their home. I explained to my spouse that I would go help them get their purchase home and she could take her time getting ready.

The store employees were able to get both the washer and dryer in my pickup even though I have a cover on the bed. I delivered the units to their home, where we unloaded them and I went home.

My spouse was ready to go so we headed west.

Arriving at Gatesville we went directly to the Steak House for lunch. It was already 1:30 and we were famished. They have a nice salad bar and the baked potato was good but I have had better and less expensive shrimp.

We arrived at the dealer and reviewed the Town and Country van. It was a 2013 and nice but the one thing that we did not like was the leather seats. Those seats seemed to be very hard.  We decided to look at the dodge vans and found a 2014 with all the same options but it has cloth seats which were more comfortable. We are not driving any vehicles until we determine a couple that we are truly interested in. 

That is what my Saturday ride was like.

 

Have a super nice day.

Don Ford

 

Prayers answered

               The weather people had indicated a high possibility for rain yesterday afternoon. About 3:30 it had not rained so I checked the weather radar. (I assume you noticed that radar is spelled the same forward and backwards. I wonder how many words are spelled the same both ways.) All the activity was south of us so I decided to take matters into my own hands and water the flower beds in the front yard.

I completed watering the two beds about 4:30 and went outside to assume my rightful position in my rocking chair near the garage door. It was hot as usual and I properly positioned a fan near the foot of my throne rocking chair directing the air toward my upper body and face.

As I sat on my rocking chair considering many world problems and remembering that I am now a year older (my 33^rd birthday for the 33^rd time), I could feel a slight change in the air temperature.   My initial thought was “I could be hallucinating”.

Tejas, my constant companion and trusted confidant, was at my side and he was verifying that the temp had dropped a little. Tejas does not like thunder and he had noted thunder was occurring in the distance.

There were repeated comments from Tejas about the thunder becoming more frequent and getting much closer. He gets a little nervous when thunder is in the area and he had come to me several times for reassurance. The back door opened and my first wife stepped outside to get something from the freezer. When my first wife went back into the house, Tejas my not so constant companion went inside with her.

Can you believe Tejas would abandon me and go inside due to a little thunder? Ok, there was a lot of thunder and shortly after he went into the house it began to rain.

Fearing that I might melt if I were to get wet, I also went inside. I did not stay inside because I wanted to observe and enjoy the rain. I went to the front porch and stood there watching nature re-watering all the plants I had watered earlier.

Later when the rain stopped, I checked the rain gage. We had received nine tenths of an inch of beautiful rain.

 

This morning as I enjoyed the somewhat cooler weather while sitting in my rocker, Tejas commented that the yard already looked better due to yesterday’s rain. He continued saying, “the grass has greened up overnight and it will need to be mowed soon”. He also noted, “The spots I normally lay in would be too tall for comfortable lounging in a day or so”.

I have noticed that some people and some dogs are never satisfied. One day it is too dry and the grass is not comfortable, the next day the grass is too tall and not comfortable.

 

 

Thanks to everyone who called and emailed me on my birthday.

Belated gifts may be sent to “The Ford Homestead Foundation of Hewitt, TX, birthday fund for the elderly Ford”. 

 

Have a nice cool day.

Don Ford

 

Can't always tell.

               I was informed by my wife of 44 years, “not everyone understands when I am joking”. She most often tells me this when we are at restaurants and I am kidding with the wait staff or the managers when they occasionally stop by our table. 

               I like to BS with people and sometimes the younger people find it difficult to distinguish between my BS and when I am serious.

               I recently posted an article in which I stated that my neighbor was inconsiderate because he trimmed tree limbs and now the sun was shining on me in the mornings. I also stated, “The problem is our neighbor did not take into consideration that the sun would be shining directly in our eyes when we were sitting outside. I have spoken to them about our needs and as of now they have not offered any sanctuary from the harmful light of the sun. In addition, they are planning on making it even worse by trimming the second tree which will likely cause serious eye injuries to my spouse and I.”

               I assumed that everyone reading the article would understand that I was joking. My spouse of 44 years said not everyone who read it took it as a joke.

               I would like to apologize to anyone who thought I was serious. My neighbor and I are best friends. If we had a concern with one another we would address it directly and not through a blog posting.

                I will attempt to be more thoughtful in the future when I am joking.

Have a fantastic day!

 

Don Ford