Oh, what a day!

Whew! I'm tarred (that's KY for tired)! It's been a long, hard day and this old gal's body is not used to all this physical exhertion. Hubby had an early doctor's appointment today so we were up and at 'em early. The roofers showed up at 7:30 (the roof is DONE!!!!!). I putzed around the house and trailer, rearranging and straightening up, washed a sink full of dishes, filled up all the bird feeders and the hummer feeders, did a load of laundry - all before 9:00.

Our friends Ken, Alex and Dewey came by to see if they could get our tractor out of the prediciment it was in (mud up to the axels) down in the lower pasture. They needed a shovel, so when Ken came up to the house to get one, I walked back down with him. Didn't find out till we got down there that he'd grabbed the broken shovel. So, it's back up to the house to get another shovel, some more chain and the "come along", then back down to the lower pasture. For those of you who are on the 10,000 step a day program - I think I completed my 10,000 before noon today - about a third of it up hill, a third of it through a waist high hay field and the rest through freshly mown pasture. Anyhow, after a lot of head scratching, a little digging and a little pulling with Dewey's truck, the tractor is free once again to roll through the fields!

We found out that our little crick (creek for those of you who weren't raised in Western PA or KY) is full of small mouth bass, brim and bluegill. Two grown men and a 16 year old boy were whoopin' and hollerin' and catching bugs they could toss in the crick and see how many fish came up to eat them. Cheap entertainment after all that manual labor. :)

Ken and Dewey went home and Alex and I hiked back up to the house to start on some demolition projects. First project on the list . . . unscrew the kitchen cabinets from the walls. Easy, right? WRONG! We're finding out little by little that this house is put together with 3 inch long nails. The kitchen cabinets are not screwed to the walls, they're nailed on with . . . . you guessed it! three inch nails. Of course the pry bars are nowhere to be found so it was on to project #2 on the list - digging an 8" x 8" trench around our patio/carport, laying in a perforrated pipe and filling it in the rest of the way with gravel so the patio/carport won't flood everytime it rains. Since we'd left one of the good shovels down in the pasture with the tractor, and we only had one good one left up here and since neither of us felt like hiking back down to the pasture again, I did the only thing a middle aged woman could do - I let the 16 year old wide receiver dig the ditch! I'm sure you know how much of a sacrifice it was on my part.

Hubby rolled in about noon-thirty. I fed the boys, fed myself, and being of sound mind, put my feet up for just 10 minutes while I was watching HGTV and woke up an hour and a half later, just in time to help Alex and hubby fill in the ditch with gravel. Somehow I think my timing was off just a bit.

In the middle of all the ditch digging and gravel getting, Alex got a call from his dad. There's evidently a Pop Warner football tournament going on in Miami. The wide receiver on one of the teams was injured and they called Alex to tell him to be on the plane to Miami tonight! So, after a a day of tractor rescuing, ditch digging and gravel loading and unloading, Alex is on his way home to shower, pack and probably sleep his way to Miami. He had a big ol' smile on his face when he left here. Whoooo hooooo! Way to go Alex! Ten years from now when he's receiving his MVP award as a pro, I wonder if he'll remember li'l ol' me and the day I made the ultimate sacrifice by handing my shovel over to him?

Blessings y'all!