Again, such a long time

Summer is over and we are soon on our way back to Florida. To try and summarize our activities we offer the following.

First, our health situations. I am doing quite well with my knees, not 100% but quite well. Getting down to my knees and back up is still a hassle, but is getting better. The knees do allow me to work fairly well as you will see from the rest of this blog. Everything else is pretty good, as I am on minimun medication, to lewer Cholesterol and maintain  a steady heartbeat.

Laura suffered from two different mishaps with the Criket, but is mostly recovered from them and with additional time should be ok. The first, and most severe injury was apparently a pulled hamstring. The second was a rather strong knee sprain accompanied by oncoming arthritis. With warm weather and walking more, she is getting better.

Back to the summer. We thought we had the boat motor fixed, but alas, not so.
Derek helped to put the poles in for the boat at the Vikings, so we had a place to berth it, but after several attempts to use it , it was determined that the lower unit was badly worn. The motor ran fine but it would not push the boat at anything faster than idle speed.

 After looking for a replacement motor, withou success, we were referred to the Findley Lake Marina, where the operator was quite familiar with Force motors. He said he believed he could repair the lower unit at a cost of about $300.00. But it would have to be done between  other jobs and take 2-3 weeks. Well, he fixed it and only charged $238, but it took 7 weeks and now there was no summer left to use it. So we put it away in the pole barn and are looking forward to having a  boat to use next summer.We repaired the seats,  changed the controls to the right side, rerouted the fuel and electric lines, made supports for the top, and e repaired the glove box lock. It should be an OK boat next year.

New roof.  We started out by doing 2 /3rds of the mobile home roof and then when that was done, decided to complete the mobile home roof and do part of the add on section, and then to do more of the addon section. This much has been completed , with minor details to complete next year. So we now have a pretty new Ocean Blue steel roof on the entire mobile home and 2/3rds of the add on section. It is  more than originally planned, but good to get done. It took a lot of time early and later in the summer(too hot during the summer) but it got done.

Lat in the summer, we found a shed we liked at Home Depot.  It was a kit in a box 2 ft x 4 ft x 8 ft long and weighed probably close to 1000 pounds. We got Ray to pick it up and deliver it to the Vikings.  It took a couple of weeks to get it together(Derek helped to finish the floor and install the walls). We got it all together and put a nice blue steel roof on it, so now we have a place to store lawn mowers, tools, ladders and stuff. It is very neat looking and complete with upper loft and shelves. As mentioned this took some of our time. 

Last year, we acquired a roll-up awning for the Vikings. Earlier this year, Derek came out and helped to install it, so now we have a nice awning over our deck. Now that the Vikings is our only lake connection, it is turning out to be quite nice.

The last project to be completed, just happened, when Lester brought his ditch-witch over and dug a nice ditch between our solarium and the pole barn. We buried two polypropylene tubings in the ditch and closed it up with a plastic water pi[e in one and electrical wiring in the other. Next year, when we return, we will connect them to appropriate water and electrical lines.

This summer, when Jerry, and Alison and kids stayed over, Jerry looked at our ailing furnace in the basement, and talked to his furnace man about the problem. His advice , basically, was to undergo an extensive cleaning program.
I took a shop vac and some tools,  including a hammer, and subjected the furnace to blowing and sucking with the shopvac, along with some tapping with the hammer, and guess what? It works fine now. Thanks Jerry and your furnace man!

Again, way behind

Lots has happened since we returned North.  We have been to Buffalo(area) 8 times, about once a week.

We had some water leakage at Ripley during the winter and decided to fix it.  So we ordered the steel and and wood strips and started in. Between the weather and other interruptions(fiddle club, Heidi, North Amherst Fathers day etc.) We have the first half about 70% done,and when we get two more working days, it should be complete. The second half will be done later in the summer.

We also have been working at the Vikings, cleaning up, redoing some support blocks, mowing, planting more flowers, and just 3 days ago, Derek was here and helped me install the 18 ft wide roll out awning, which dramatically changes the looks and comfort of the place.

Today was day 3 of 4 days that we are spending to clean out the Lakeside Camper, which we sold last Saturday. We sold it with the boat lift and the catwalk, so after tomorrow, we will have only two places to maintain.

 We first went into Lakeside with the 1958 Dodge Schoolbus/camper about 1973 and have been there of and on since.  The camper we just sold was the third one set up on a seasonal basis, and was purchased in 1997. Everybody in the family has lots of mostly good memories from their time there. Life  for us will be considerably easier without it.

The sale was triggered by our ability to join the Boat Club at the Vikings and to obtain a slip for our 20 ft pontoon boat we bought last fall. The motor needed some work and this was just completed Saturday. So now we have to put in the poles to hold the boat and we can use it. So Boat rides on  Chautauqua Lake should  soon be available.

We still have projects ahead of us, but are gaining. Ahead of us are several weddings, and the family reunion, and other functions so we anticipate a continuing busy summer here in Ripley. enough for now, will try to do bettter in the future.

We Are Home!

We left Florida Tuesday morning,  about 8 am and traveled to Knoxville, Tennessee where we spent the night. We left Knoxville about 7:30 am and arrived home in Ripley about 7:30 in the evening. We had no problems along the way, other than some construction, which is to be expected. We came the longer way, up 75 rather than 95/26/77/79/90, because although longer, it is far less hilly, which is much easier on the old Caravan(155,000 miles) pulling a well loaded trailer.

The weather was hot and sunny, until we got within 20 minutes of Ripley when it started to rain lightly. Not a problem as we had an extra Tarp to throw over the trailer until morning.

Everything was fine in Ripley. the power was on, the water came on with no problems, the refrigerators/freezers came on with no problem. The house was cool, but warmed up some when doors, etc were opened.

This morning the sun was out, and it was just like being in Florida. We unloaded the trailer with nothing getting wet, completed unloading the car, and got down to the business of setting up the phone, computers and Dish Network.

We are about to resume nomal Ripley Life with its many trips to Buffalo and other locations.  Gas was generally 3.57 in Georgia, Tennessee, and ohio. In Kentucky  and Pa, it was more like 3.75-3.85. We don't know about NY yet because we have not been far enough East to see any gas stations in NY. Tomorrow we shall see.

Hope to see everybody soon, hang in there. 

They keep changing the blog setup, but we are behind regardless. After a sensational spring weatherwise, we are getting ready to head North. Our plans right now are to leave Satsuma on Tuesday morning and arrive  in Ripley sometime Wednesday afternoon.  The trailer is mostly loaded and tomorrow the car gets loaded, the boat gets pulled and the last minute details are completed. 

We are looking forward to seeing all the family, how they are growing, and what they are learning.  Sunday, we are planning to go to Rochester to attend a fund raising walk for Kat. We will be bringing all three of our electric handicap vehicles in case the 3.5 miles is too much to walk. We now have a 20 ft pontoon boat for Chaut. lake so that should be interesting for all involved.
  I successfully survived the winter and achieved my goal of not having to visit a Doctor or Hospital, but Laura did not.She is still being affected by the"Criket Incident" which we will have checked out in early May.

Our shed is basically done. Needs  a floor and some trim -to be done next  fall.  Other work will have to wait until then also.  Will check after we get back to Ripley.

Spring Already!

First the health issues.My knee was really dragging last week when I spent a lot of time on it, but today it is doing quite well. I am finally getting back to close to normal, with only the issue of getting up and down to and from the floor, which is slowly getting better. Laura is still slowly recovering from "the cricket incident", but has now twisted herself somewhere and is also now recovering from that.

The weather this year has been fantastic, with only a few light freezes in December. This week it has been 80 every day, 60 during the night. No AC or heat required. It has been mostly sunny, with very little rain.It is so dry, they are comparing it with 2008, when they had major grass and field fires throughout Florida.

Last week, we had our annual Turkey Jamfest, which was a huge success. Beautiful weather, 54 people. We have have just concluded putting everything away.

We continue to be busy. Today we went to the annual Seniors day at the Putnam County Fair. The fair is about 1/4 the size of the Chautauqua county Fair. They do a very nice job of recognizing Seniors, with a free lunch, free entertainment, and prizes such as $25 gift cards to the local grocery stores.

Tomorrow, we go to the Annual Clay Electric Meeting in Keystone Heights. This is the annual election of officers, and other official business. We get free entertainment, this year it is Mike Snider and his bluegrass band. We also get a chicken dinner, some vendor give-a-ways, and if we stay long enough, they give away about 150 prizes, ranging from flatirons to large screen tvs, which is followed by the grand prize of one of their pickup trucks. Lester and Sue won this last year.

Friday, Janice is bringing Remy over for a boat ride to see alligators, then we go to the Sr Center for music. Saturday, we are going to Silver Springs to See Glen Campbell on his "Goodbye Tour". He is in the beginning stages of Alzheimers(?). He now uses teleprompters and his family is the band and very supportive.

Sunday, we have at least three choices, one being the Flagler Air Show, another being the art and craft show in Deland,the other being the Balloon fest in New Smyrna.

We just finished a busy weekend of visiting Daytona to see and walk among the bikers on Sat, Visiting Waldo flea market and Micanopy, which is a small town, with many shops and and a huge antique store on Sunday. And then Monday, it was back to Daytona to meet with Mel and Norma and Janice and Don. We saw Jane Saturday night on our way back. The purpose of Mondays' trip was to try and assist Billy Johnson, who was faced with repairing the bus for the "Big Leg Emma" band from Jamestown. They had come down to Daytona to play at the Ocean Deck Hotel Sat and Sunday nites.

The bus broke down somewhere around Jacksonville, and was towed to Daytona. Greg Folts and Billy tried to find a part Sunday and thought they had succeeded, but it had to be shipped in from someplace and would be there on Monday. So we loaded up as many of my larger tools that I could locate and we went off to Daytona. I took Billy to the Advance store, where the part had arrived, but! It was not the right part. The parts man there was very good with their computer system and he claimed they had the right part in stock at another store, and it was $10.86 cheaper. Off we went and the part was there, and although slightly different, was the correct part for the job. We got back to the bus, Billy struggled, but with help from another band member, got it together, and they were able to move on to the next location, Charleston, S.C. The part in question was the bracket that holds the serpentine belt tensioner.

Jerry and Shirley left for home this past Saturday. Jerry was quite busy, replacing a toilet, replacing a leaking water heater, having a new AC installed, installing a new window plus miscellaneous little things like painting walls, and mowing the lawn. He also found time to play a little music at Ebo's, Jay Lou"s and the Senior Center.

Ray mowed our lawn in ripley today and said everything looked ok, so that is good. It is hard to believe that in about 40 days, we will be heading North. We have some work to do, as we need to complete the shed, so we can lock it up securely.Will try to do better to keep current.

wow, where has winter gone/

I have been informed to update my blog, and here it is(some). I have had good intentions, but!





First the most important things. Laura has basically recovered from "the Criket incident", but needs more time to fully recover. She is normally quite active, but was slowed considerably by her injuries from "the Criket Incident". She is now building herself back up to normal speed.





I am doing well, with no Doctor or hospital visits. The knee is doing well, although it still lets me know it is there. I can do most things, I used to do, but getting down on the floor and back up is still awkward.





The weather here for Jan and Feb has been fantastic, with only one short cold spell requiring heat, no AC needed(yet).





The boat is running fine, with not too many river trips recently, but lots of really big alligators. The most recent trip was several days ago, when we had Les and Sues' son Steve and his army friend Rich, along with Jerry and Shirleys'daughter, and granddaughter out and saw one of the largest gators we have ever seen on our river. The gator was nice enough to stay still so that all could get nice pictures of him.

We took the motorhome over to the Bluegrass Festival at Rodeheavers ranch and had a good time.

Then we loaded both crikets on the trailer and went to Homosassa State Park in Homosassa Springs. This is still one of the nicest parks around to see Florida wildlife. Birds, including white pelicans, alligators, manatees, and even Lucifer. Lucifer is still around at 52 years of age. Lucifer is a huge 3000 lb Hippopotamus.

After that ,we went south to Dunedin to witness their Fat Tuesday celebration. Their parade was 45 minutes of constant bead throwing. Without trying, we easily had 10-15 lbs of beads. Following this we went to Tampa to spend the night and in the morning, we went to Busch Gardens. They have a new Ice Skating show which is fantastic. We also saw the animal show, which is adding new animals all the time. We were going to go to Seaworld on the way back but decided enough was enough.

Last weekend we went to Silver Springs for the Travis Tritt Concert. It was ok, but they have eliminated the big speakers that used to be out front, so unless you were closer to the front, it was hard to hear everything.

Last week, Carol Sawyer died, at age 69. Carol was the oldest child of Uncle Frank and Aunt Dora and is a cousin to me. Uncle Roy Holcomb also passed away at 81. Roy was the youngest child of Mark and Beulah Holcomb, and was the younger brother of my mother. Doris Holcomb Mohr.

Until next time.

Woman versus machine!

We have have been very busy during this Holiday period.

Laura lost the battle with the Criket. After using it, she was returning it to its home on the back porch, when she tried to convince it to back up, while she was standing in front of it. This was fine, except it was still in forward gear. As a result, the Criket went forward, quite rapidly, knocked Laura down, partially ran over her, spread eagled her legs outward, farther than they wanted to go. The good part is that the porch railing, combined with a bamboo type shelf prevented the Criket from going any farther, possibly down the steps.

The result was a painful trip to the Putnam County Hospital, for x-rays, which were negative, and an examination, which showed no broken bones, just bruises. But what bruises. We were lucky, in that the emergency room was quiet, and it only took 2 hours total time.

This took place Wednesday night, and Bluegrass in Georgia was to be Thursday thru Saturday.

After some consideration, we decided to go to the Bluerass. Laura felt she could do nothing but sit anyway, and I could use the rest from working on the shed. So we hooked up the trailer and took Criket Jr with us. Thursday morning we went to Jekyll Island in Georgia. Moving around was very difficult for Laura but sitting still was ok. Laura found it to be very difficult trying to get to our seats, so we sat in the handicap section, with her on Criket Jr, and it worked fine.

Today(Tuesday morning) , it is harder for Laura to get comfortable, but overall, she is ok. She has numerous black and blue spots , incuding one huge one on the inside/backside of her left thigh. (pictures exist). So it looks like a matter of time to heal up and be ok again.

We went to Janes' for Christmas Day and had a good time.

Normas' grandaughter, Jessie was here for the Christmas period, and we took her, along with Buford and Norma to Seaworld. It was a cool day, and very busy, but we got to see all the shows and I think Jessie enjoyed it. We also took them for a boat ride, which was pleasant and saw 8-10 alligators, mostly big ones and Jessie got some good pictures.

The weather here in December has been really great. Up to now, we did not need either the furnace or the ac. This contrasts with last year, when we had 17 frosts in December. We had our first frost last night, with another one expected tonight, then warmer again.

I have been very busy with the shed, which has been slower than desired, but I am gaining. Two more roof panels, then the roofing and it will be protected. Windows on the end and a door will come eventually.

More later.