Will we ever finish this project?

The fence is progressing, slowly, very slowly, but it's coming along. We are in the process of "designing" our gate. We are gazing at a photo I took of a gate on the DVD of "Story of a Patriot" about Colonial Williamsburg, trying to decide the dimensions of the lumber we need to construct said gate.

Yesterday we put up all but one small section of wire and the boards to cover the seams of the horizontal rails at the vertical posts. We only have one small section of wire to put up, then the gates.

We are trying desperately to beat the cold weather, because we are painting all the lumber before it is put up, that way all surfaces are covered and I only have to do touch up painting to cover hammer marks. We are ready to do something FUN!

I must admit we have had wonderful weather to work, mostly in the mid 60's to low 70's. I can't imagine how we would have done this in July or August or without the help of our nephew, Addison. It was good spending time with him and enjoying the nice weather. There is a silver lining to this project.

WE HAD A TAKER

All the post holes are dug, only because we had a little secret help from someone passing by, and kindly dug all but four holes with a huge auger. Our nephew, Addison, took the job to dig the last four; two right at where the utilities were marked, one by our neighbor's brick pillar and one in a clump of bushes that our secret helper couldn't reach with his big tractor.

Hubby and Addison have all the posts installed, wire up on the left side of the driveway and one row of boards over the wire. Thursday we spent the day with friends at their place on a hunting club, and when we got home we had a nice note on the front door from the CODE ENFORCEMENT man. "If you continue work on the fence there will be a citation and $1,000 fine."

A permit has to be obtained before you can put up a fence. More government intervention into our lives. It was quite easy to obtain, sorta and only cost $25, but still a pain in the rear.

BORING? NOT!

It's been a while since I last did a post. It's not that our lives are boring, but we have been so busy!

Presently, we have committed to facilitate Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University at our church, which is 17 miles away, and at a smaller church, just about four miles from us. Wednesdays we are at our church, Sunday afternoons we are at the closer church. There are about 64 students at our church (north campus) and the other church there are about 52 students. This commitment has kept us busy. It's a GREAT course. If you ever have an opportunity to take it, do so, even if you are debt free. There is so much information in that 13-week course, you can always learn something new.

Then there are always "normal" household duties, but the garden calls. I have just canned the last greenbeans out of the garden and we have pulled up all those vines. It was a bit sad. We will miss those fresh greenbeans. We still have okra and tomatoes producing. Every time I drag my canning jars and accouterments out of the basement I think that is the last time for this year, but "opportunities" keep presenting themselves to can something else.

Our next project is going to be putting the fence back up at the road. FINALLY! We think most of the activity has been completed. All four lanes are open now, the right-of-way markers have all been installed and we know exactly where we can put our fence. We have already marked jthe fence location and all the utilities have been marked as well. We can dig legally, for now, but only until October 3rd, then we have to renew the approval before September 29th. Complicated, I know, but if you don't call before you dig, and you hit one of the utilities, then you get fined. All we need are some volunteers to dig the holes for the fence posts. Do I have any takers?

ALL IN A DAY'S WORK

We found the kind of greenbeans we love at the Farmer's Market last week, so I bought a box. I actually had to do something with them, so here they are, all in cans ready to go to the basement to be stored.

Saturday we drove to North Carolina to visit friends from church for the day. They gave me a large bag of pears and apples, so yesterday after church I made pear relish and applesauce. I ended up with 16 pints of pear relish and six and one-half pints of applesauce. I suppose I'm going to hell for doing all that canning on Sunday.

My entire fireplace hearth was covered with all these items canned the past few days, so I got busy and moved them all to the basement. Well, then I had to rearrange what was already down there, so we will eat the oldest things first. Novel idea, I know. Once I got everything rearranged, I opened the freezer door--I had to face it. The freezer needs defrosting, so I turned it off to thaw.

Scarlett will worry about that tomorrow. I am pooped, so we are going to put on our pajamas and watch "Batman 3" this evening, excuse me, I've just been informed, that's "Spiderman 3".

From this to this...

Rumor has it the DOT will be finished with the road by the end of August. I'm not holding my breath. When you ride down the road there are still lots of things that need to be completed, like replacing the cracked apron on our driveway. The apron is the concrete part that connects that little bit of black top to the actual road. When we got stuck (refer to first photo) they cracked it when they rolled over it with that big machine (refer to second photo) that flattens the black top to pack the rock dust/crushed rock they had to pour on that mud hold (refer to first photo). So today I was out at the road with my orange marking paint, marking those cracks on the apron and I put a great big orange arrow on the finished road pointing out those cracks. I bet DOT will be so glad to get away from us. LOL! Do you see Hubby over by the bush "supervising" (refer to second photo)?

Now we are trying to decide what type of fence we want to put back up since DOT took our nice chain-link fence. :-) We could put up a nice wooden farm-type fence for almost half of what it will cost us to put a chain-link fence, but we will have to do the labor. UGH! If we go with a chain link, we have decided we want a black one and it's vinyl. That means we would have a plastic fence! I kind of like the idea of a nice farm-type wooden fence. We just don't want to invest more money in this place, because rumor has it, people are going to be knocking our door down to buy us out for commercial property, once the highway is complete. I'm not holding my breath.

IN MEMORY

We attended a memorial service today for Mitch, son of our dear friend Jane.

MASTER SERGEANT MITCHELL "MITCH" YOUNG, 39, was killed July 13 while conducting a combat reconnaissance patrol in Afghanistan, in support of combat operations while serving with the Special Forces Group (Airborne).

In May 2008, Mitch deployed in support of Operations Enduring Freedom as a member of the Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force--Afghanistan. This was his fourth deployment in support of the Global War on Terror and third deployment to Afghanistan. He was a Special Forces Operation Detachment-Alpha team sergeant.

Mitch, a native of our local community, volunteered for military service and entered the Army in 1991 as an infantryman. He served at Ft. Ord, CA, Ft. Campbell, KY, Germany and Ft. Bragg, NC. He earned the coveted "Green Beret" in 1999.

Mitch is survived by his wife, Robin, his mother Jane (our dear friend), his sister Cheryl and brother Brent.

The service was awesome, his childhood pastor and friends spoke along with his military friends and family to include his brother. It was a great service of honoring a man that loved his family and country and gave his life for all of us. I was okay until the military called his company roll, all his fellow soldiers answered, then when they called his name, they called it four time, each time adding to his name, Sgt. Young, no answer, Sgt. Mitchell Young, no answer, Sgt. Mitchell W. Young, no answer, SGT. MITCHELL W. YOUNG, no answer. Then they played taps. Everyone lost it. There wasn't a dry eye in the huge church that was overflowing with friends and family that came to honor him today.

He told his childhood friend he wasn't real excited about going back to Afghanistan, but his response was, "better there than here."

IS THIS A DOG OR A PONY?

This great dane belongs to my niece. He is the biggest dog I've ever seen, but he's always a big chicken (Sorry Lizzie). He thinks he's a lap dog, and is in my sister-in-law's lap, for crying in the cream. He can beat you to death with his tail and his bark is HUGE! He eats like a horse, no pun intended, but Lizzie loves him. He's the biggest fur baby in the world. However, her cats rule the roost, this dog is on the bottom of the food chain in this household. Poor baby. This is one of the kitties that makes the great dane mind. She's about eight pounds, the dog weighs 150 lbs.