Sunday, May 28, 2006

Memorial Day

We had a great time yesterday. We went to Mike and Linda's house for Matthew's birthday. The boys are growing up so quickly. Jerry wanted to beat the traffic on the holiday weekend, so we left at 3:30 yesterday morning (YAWN!!!). We are still feeling tired today. We really had a good time though and we are glad we went and got to visit with everyone.

Here's the birthday boy enjoying his new ride.

.....and here comes contestant number three in the Mr. All-That-And-A-Bag-Of-Chips contest........

And now for the talent portion of the competition........

Bailey with cake on his face! I did not obtain a photo release from the gentleman in the background, therefore I am not responsible if the photo is not to his liking!!!

"Bring it on!" Okay, she didn't really say that, but I can't figure out what she WAS saying, so I went with that!

Andy having a laugh at the pool antics.

"If I stick my tongue out and concentrate REAL hard on not tipping over........"

"OH NO!..........."

Wednesday, May 17, 2006


We'll miss you, Busa.

Goodbye, Busa

Yesterday was a sad day around here. Our cat, Busa, passed away. Busa has been a part of our family for the past 17 years. Tom was 3 years old when he chose him from a litter of kittens at the humane society. It's very hard losing a pet that we have had so long. It is especially hard on the boys - for Tom because Busa was his cat, and for Andy because this is Andy's first experience losing a pet. What made matters even worse was that Jerry, Andy and I were in Delaware yesterday. Tom had stayed home to do schoolwork and went looking for Busa upstairs and found that he had passed away. Tom was very brave because he had to handle things until we got home. When we got home it was 11:30 at night but we gave Busa a proper burial anyway. Tom had wrapped him nicely and readied him for burial because he said he didn't want Andy to see him. Now that's a good big brother. I'm sorry that we weren't here when it happened, but I'm not sorry that Andy wasn't here at the time. Busa had been slowing down considerably over the last couple of weeks and over the past few days I noticed that he wasn't eating very well, so we figured it probably wouldn't be long. He was very old for a cat, and definitely lived a full life! We used to joke that he used up 8 of his 9 lives a long time ago. He was bitten in the leg by a bobcat when we lived in West Virginia and we were told by the vet that he might not make it. He was run over by a car and had half of his tail lopped off and his back legs crushed - again we were told he probably wouldn't make it. Something (we don't know what this time) got into a battle with him and tore part of one ear and put a massive wound on his head - we didn't think he would make it that time. Then when we were moving here from West Virginia, at the last minute he jumped out of the car and ran into the woods. We searched for him but couldn't find him. We had a caravan of people helping us move and we needed to get on the road. It broke my heart, but we had to leave. I knew that we would be returning in two weeks to tie up loose ends and I prayed that he would be there then. Well, he was - because that was 14 years ago! As soon as we pulled up I jumped out of the car and started calling for him whereupon he promptly came bounding out of the woods. He had survived two weeks by himself out there. This time when it was time to go, he didn't even try to get out of the car - in fact, he laid down and got quite comfortable! He was a guard cat around here and would actually chase dogs out of our yard. He even chased a pit bull to the fence line once. We definitely didn't think he would survive that - but he did - again. He was one tough cat, but he was also a real sweetheart and loved to be cuddled, purring so loudly that you could hardly hear anything else. Busa was a great pet, and we will miss him very much.

Saturday, May 13, 2006

It's Been Awhile!

I didn't go away - just took a hiatus! In the intervening month we haven't done a lot that was newsworthy. Tom is still in school (he got his midterm grades and is doing very well). Andy is still doing well with homeschooling (in spite of the MEAN TEACHER he has!). Jerry has been busy working and restoring a 1950 tractor for his uncle. His uncle bought the tractor a couple of months ago and wanted to convert it from a 6-volt system to a 12-volt, so now it is finished and running beautifully. Jerry wanted me to drive it when it was finished (and I wanted to drive it), but I was too afraid! If something happened to it, I didn't want to think about Jerry's uncle's reaction! If it belonged to us I would probably try it. Maybe I'll get my courage up before it leaves here next week - we'll see. I did finally get brave enough to drive Jerry's John Deere backhoe. He needed me to drive it and push a wrecked truck into the garage while he steered the truck. I actually enjoyed it so much that I took it for a spin down the driveway a few times! He had bartered with the guy who owns the wrecked truck - if Jerry would remove the engine from the wreck (which was still good and which the owner of the truck wanted), then Jerry could have the transmission for his truck. He got the engine out and the man took the wreck away, but the engine is still hanging on the engine stand in the garage because he hasn't picked that up yet. So, between Jerry's uncle's tractor and the engine, I didn't think there was room for our vehicles which made me a little nervous the other night when the weather forecast was for storms with possible hail. Jerry proved me wrong, though! He crammed the tractor and engine and grill off to one side, and managed to fit the Tahoe and his old brown truck in the other. The brown truck is the one that he used to drive and that the transmission is for - this is the one he had painted and it isn't tagged or insured yet, so we definitely didn't want hail damaging that! That truck means as much to him as one the boys, I think!

Well, I will try to post more consistently, but right now I need to go and do a few things and clean this awful house! Yuck!

Farmer Jerry on the move.

A 1950 Ford 8N tractor. Jerry had a lot of fun fixing this up for his uncle. He also had a lot of fun driving it when it was finished!

The rhododendron bush has nearly reached the second-floor window now.

We saw the sunrise on our way to Delaware, and the farms we passed were beautiful.

This is what the cow (picture posted previously) looks like now. My freezer is grateful.

A bird on the knee is worth....no, wait.....wrong saying!

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails