FAREWELL, PART II

FAREWELL

I mentioned on my last post that we said goodbye to an old friend yesterday. It wasn't a sad goodbye or a tragic goodbye. It was a fond farewell. A sendoff to a new home, to a better life. OK. So maybe I'm being just a tad melodramatic. The old friend I'm talking about is a bus.

When we purchased our property here on the creek, it came complete with several outbuildings, and The Bus. The Bus evidently started out life as a Whitley County school bus and upon retiring from academia, worked part time as a church bus. Somewhere along the line he was put out to pasture. Literally. Out in the pasture behind the house. Over the years he was stripped of his seats and his engine and his dignity and was evidently used as yet another storage shed. I can't imagine the embarrassment that this once proud servant of the academic world must have felt to be forced to live out his golden years in a cow pasture, filled with junk. The ridicule he must have endured as the shiny, new school buses passed by each day as well as the semi-retired church buses that travel our road on a regular basis. The on bright spot in his life in the pasture was the bush of wild honeysuckle that had grown up through what used to be his engine. It was beautiful to behold and had a beautiful, sweet fragrance. The honeysuckle actually acted as camouflage and after a while it hid the fact that The Bus had no engine.

Hubby and I had discussed on several occasions what we should do with The Bus. We toyed with the idea of turning it into a novel guest suite. Unfortunately, with everything else we have going on around here, The Bus just wasn't one of our top priorities.

Well Tuesday, when Hubby was off picking up our new menagerie and I was up on the ladder painting, a gentleman came to the door and introduced himself as "Centers, Junior Centers, C-e-n-t-e-r-s". He was just wonderin' if we might be interested in selling that old but out there. I thought about it for about a micro-second and said in my calmest voice, "yes sir, I believe we would!". We agreed on a price for the bus as well as an old lawn tractor and some scrap metal we had laying around waiting for a chance to take it to the scrap yard. Centers, Junior Centers told me he'd be back in a few days, after the rain stopped from "that thar hurrycane".

Yesterday, Mr. Centers, Junior Centers, and two friends came by armed with tools and a tow truck that was nearly as old as The Bus. It took help from Hubby and his trusty tractor and about two hours worth of pushing and pulling and banging and turning by the other three men before The Bus finally moved from his spot in the pasture and for the first time in who knows how many years rolled proudly down the road with his head held high (OK, so it was held up by the hook on the tow truck) on his own new adventure. So, farewell old friend. You have left a void in our pasture and your leaving has opened up a wonderful new view of the mountain.

Blessings from the creek y'all!

P.S. Blogger is not allowing me to post any pictures tonight. I'll try again tomorrow and will add pictures of The Bus and his journey if I can.

ANd oN THis fARm hE HAd SOmE . . . .

Yesterday, while I was priming the kitchen (I think our kitchen grew because I swear it was at least twice as big as I remember)my wonderful husband and our friends Ken and Dewey climbed into the truck and headed for London. NOT London, England! London, Kentucky. Home of Patton's Livestock Market. They were just going to look, of course. Get set up with an auction account so when we're ready for a couple of cows for the pasture, we'll be all set to go. I should have been suspicious when they had the trailer hooked up to the back of the truck, but Hubby reassured me that since they were going to be close to Lowes, they'd stop on the way back and pick up the range we ordered. THAT'S why they needed the trailer. Well now, at about 5:00, they came rolling into the driveway and drove straight back to the barn. "Why?", asked they woman of the house as she was standing on the ladder priming the ceiling, "are they going to the barn? The range is coming into the house!" A few minutes later Hubby came to the kitchen door and asked if I'd come out to the barn for a minute. Oooooh Kaaaaay! So I put on my rain jacket (it was pouring at the time) and followed him to the barn, where I found Dewey and Ken, leaning on the stall gates just a smilin'! Seems that they decided to stay for some of the auction - just to get a feel of things, mind you - and one of the first things that came up for sale was . . . you'll have to see it to believe it . . .
Meet Ginny (the mom) and Emma (the baby). And then, while they were there . . . they might as well bring home baby Lilly and then of course came a deal NOBODY in their right mind would have passed up . . . LulaBelle and Parsley, the Hereford Sisters.

Needless to say, the range is still at Lowes, and we've been having a ball today watching everyone get used to their new surroundings. In the midst of everything else going on around The Creek today, we took time out to say goodbye to an old friend. But that's a whole post in itself, so you'll have to wait until next time.

Blessings from The Creek y'all!

Just a little bit more . . .

We're down to finishing up a little tweaking and touching up! Accessorising will have to wait a while until I can find the right boxes.

It's raining here at the creek today - the first rain we've had in several weeks. Such a wonderful, relaxing sound! The birds are happy! The crickets are happy! The dogs are happily napping and I'm using the extra humidity as my excuse not to start priming and painting the kitchen today. So I'm doing laundry and catching up on some reading and listening to the rain. I've promised myself that tomorrow, bright and early, no excuses, I will paint!

Blessings from The Creek y'all!

There's Room At The Cross . . .

This is a picture taken from our back yard a few days ago. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words!


Blessings from The Creek!

ALMOST DONE!

A few before and after pictures of our nearly completed bathroom!





We finished the painting today. The toilet is in place, the shower door is installed, the vanity is set and after a few technical difficulties due to a 12" height difference between the two inhabitants of the house, the medicine cabinet and light are in place. There are just a few more little details to finish up, but its functional and beautiful and 1000% better in its present state than it was when we bought the house. I'll post more "after" pictures as soon as the batteries in my camera charge. Hey! I can't remember everything.

Blessings from The Creek!

Something Worth Sharing

I received this via e-mail from a dear friend of mine (one of my "ancients") I thought it was to special not to share.

To my sisters in the Lord...
There comes a time in every woman's life when she has to take a close look at herself. Not at her circumstance, not at what she did, not how unfair life is, or at who made you do it. She has to just look at herself in all her glory and imperfection. Have you ever admired a woman who has been through changes in her life? Or have you made up in your mind that she is just messed up. Before you make this mistake, take a closer look. A woman who has endured the most unusual life is someone of wisdom, someone who has been chosen by God to go through things that have made her stronger.

Think of all the great women in the Bible: Mary Magdalene, Ruth and Naomi , the woman with an issue of blood, and Esther , to name a few. Mary was a prostitute, a very uneasy woman. But by the time Jesus was done with her, she was His closest follower. Esther was unfortunate in marrying an abusive man, but by the time God was done with her, she had married one of the wealthiest men in the land.

Women are so quick to beat the next one down instead of trying to hold her up. Before you wonder, " What's up with her?" ask yourself, "What's up with me?" That woman could be my mother, sister, aunt, in-law, stepmother, niece, grandmother, great-grandmother, neighbor, friend, or co-worker, etc. That woman could be ME .

Women are the carriers of life, not the channels of death. Let's build and encourage each other, as did Ruth and Naomi . Pass this to all the women in your life. Encourage and love, forgive and forget, and trust that the woman that receives this will be touched in some way.

Blessings from The Creek!

THE 7 SONG TAG!

I almost forgot! Kim also tagged me for the "7 SONG TAG".

There have been many songs this summer that have taken on new meaning or have come to mean a lot to me. Just a few are:
1. In The Presence of Jehovah
2. I Can't Even Walk (without holding His hand)
3. Friends Are Friends Forever
4. Bound For the Promised Land
5. The theme from Green Acres
6. Dueling Banjos (it's a Kentucky thing)
7. I'll Fly Away (in tribute to the Barney Swallow Band)

The rules:
List 7 songs you are into right now. No matter what genre, whether they have words, or even if they are not any good, but they must be songs you are really into right now, shaping your summer. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs.Then tag 7 other people to see what they're listening to.

I'm going to tag . . .
Kathy
Adrienne
Sharron
Elaine
Leigh
Grace
Sheri

Anyone else who wants to let me know what you've been listening to, please feel to leave your list in the comments.

Blessings from The Creek!

Share The Love

A few weeks ago Kim from Kim's Treasures honored me with this award. Due to technical difficulties and time constraints, I'm just now able to send a belated THANK YOU, KIM! her way. I was finally able to pull up the blog where this beautiful award originated and read the story that sparked its conception. A beautiful story and a beautiful tribute to a family that shared the love in a totally selfless way.

The rules of this award are simple: SHARE THE LOVE!!! Share this award with all those blogs out there that you love. All the people who make you smile. All those that make you laugh. All those that make your day. All those that leave uplifting comments on your blog. **Please include a link to this post with the award and ask your recipient to do the same**

So it is my honor to pass this award on to all of you who have stood by me through my adventure . . . who have laughed with me and prayed for me . . . who have worried about me when I was absent from blogland . . . who have encourage me . . . and have even taken time away from their vacation to visit with me in my new town. I love and appreciate you all.

Blessings from The Creek!

Testing 1-2-3 Testing

The very nice gentleman from Wild Blue Satellite Internet was here today to free me from dial-up Internet service. So far, it's not the high speed I was used to, but it's MUCH speedier than dial-up! The true tests will be #1, whether I can upload pictures to my blog and #2, whether I'll be able to download some of my favorite blogs that have been unaccessable to me over the past few weeks. So here goes . . .

Welcome to The Creek!


"Baby Gracie" and her older sister Brigitte

Puppy paws (and she's still growing)

The Barnie Swallow Band . . Doo, Whah, Dittie, and Duhm

Our "open floor" plan kitchen


So far so good! I'm going to go visit some of my friends now. I'll post pictures of the new and improved kitchen and bathroom next time.

Blessings from The Creek!

Things they don't tell you on the DIY netork!

Renovating has been an eye opening experience so far. We've done remodeling before and that's basically what we were expecting to do this time. HOWEVER . . .

Here are some lessons I've learned over the past couple of weeks.
1. A one piece fiberglass tub/shower unit does NOT come out in one piece. I recommend at least six pieces so that they can be carried out the door without the danger of falling through the gaping 12 foot long hole in the kitchen floor. (see #2)
2. When a square Mason jar rolls across the kitchen floor, that is a very big indication that there is probably a project of massive proportions lurking beneath the layers of old vinyl and plywood.
3. Don't judge a book by its cover . . . or a box by its label. For instance - if hubby remembers buying a toilet and the box containing the toilet was loaded on to the truck and brought with us andwe found the box and it doesn't looks like it has ever been opened, then there is no need to purchase a new toilet. Right? Weeeeell . . . somebody forgot that they bought the toilet to put in for a customer before we left Eden - not to bring with us for the remodel - and somebody else forgot that they used the box to pack picture frames in and must have neglected to label the box or the label fell off. Sooooo an hour before 5 extra people were to arrive at the house and the only other facility is the tiny little bathroom in the travel trailer when hubby opened the box to set the new toilet . . . . let's just say it's a good thing I hadn't had a chance to take the sledge hammer to the old toilet. Which leads me to #4. . .
4. When removing an old toilet from the house, it is best to either empty the water from the bowl/tank with a shop vac or make sure the height of the people carrying it is somewhat equal. For instance, if a 6'2" man and a 5' almost 2" woman attempt to carry a toilet with water in it, gravity will inevitably cause the water to flow out of the toilet towards the lowest point (the feet of the 5'almost 2"woman).

Well, dear friends, I'm off to learn some more lessons.

Blessings from the creek!