We have RATS!

Christmas Eve was rather calm and quiet. We did attend the Candlelight Service at our church. It was wonderful. We always look forward to this service. There must have been 1,500 people there, the down stairs was packed and almost all the balcony was full. We sang Christmas Carols, had special music and one of the ladies that plays in the orchestra played the harp and her young daughter played the flute. Mrs. Harp played before the service, then during part of the service she accompanied Little Miss Flute and they played "Jesus Did You Know". It was heavenly.

Christmas Day was another calm, quiet day. We built a big fire, had a very untraditional lunch--grilled salmon, fresh steamed asparagus and red potatoes. We just made a point to rest and relax after months of running and working non-stop, we treated outselves to the luxury of being couch potatoes for the day.

Tomorrow our family (my brother and all his kids, which are all adults) are coming. That menu will be a little more traditional--ham on the Big Green Egg, greenbeans (pickled and regular), mashed potatoes with sour cream and other side dishes that will be supplied by the others that are coming to the party. I don't have a clue what else we will have in the way of veggies.

However, I DO KNOW we are having some good desserts. My Mom has bakes pecan and pumpkin pies, I've made a chocolate cake, well the cake is just yellow cake with my grandmother chocolate frosting recipe. I poked holes in the layers of the cake so all that frosting could just settle down in the cake. Last time I made one everyone was fussing making sure they got their share of the cake. It's going to be wonderful. It is cooling on the kitchen counter and I caught the RATS picketing around the cake. Look at those little beady eyes. They just don't realize they are endangered species, just wait until tomorrow.

The Great Gate/Fence Project is DONE!!!!!

After two months of our lives being consumed by this project we have finally finished.

Our next goal is to get through Christmas, then next spring our next project will be to paint the outside of the house.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

Photo right:

Looking to the left coming out the driveway.



Photo below:

Taken from across the road.

Took us three weeks to build these gates, then they were so heavy I could hardly help get them out of the workshop.

I'm posting these photos for those of you that have been here before, during and after the widening of the road. Our little country road is now a four-lane raceway. That 45 mph speed limit sign means absolutely NOTHING! People are flying through here like it's I-75. One of the contractors told me he was driving 65 mph and people were passing him. I've told one of the majors with the county police they could make a mint if they would just set up out here. The major told me they couldn't do that until the state deems the project complete. The speed limit sign is looking to the right standing in our driveway. You can see just how wide the road is now, it's sickening. We are so thankful the house is as far off the road as it is, because we still don't really know there is a road out there once we get back to the house. We do still hear the interstate, even though it is a mile away. The sound carries, especially with it being elevated. We even heard the train in Jonesboro the other day and that's four miles away.

This last photo is looking to the right coming out of the driveway.

We now know where we live. The fence has made all the difference in the world. During the project we didn't recognize our own driveway because of all the tree/brush removal from the right-of-way. Traveling east we have to pass the house, go two streets down the road and make a U-turn and head back west, or we could turn left into the subdivision around us, but those stupid "planters" down the center of the road blocks our view of oncoming traffic and it's too dangerous, so we just drive another 500 feet or so, and make the U-turn.

We have ordered some strap "fake" hinges to go on the front of the gate, hopefully they will be here this week.

We have been working on this since October, so I'm so ready to be FINISHED! I found some beautiful artificial wreaths yesterday, so I'll be working on those to get them up before Christmas.

PLAN TWO IMPLEMENTED

Well, the fence is finished all but one small space between the fence post and the gate post. We can do that in a few minutes. HOWEVER, the gates are another story. We found these beautiful gates, but in reality they are.not.working! We have spent three days working on them and we still don't have a completed frame, so we are now working on plan two.

Hubby is on his way to Home Depot to buy more materials and hopefully by the end of the week we will have plan two complete. This is really my fault since I wanted the gate with all the spindles. We just can't attach the hinges to all those spindles, so we are going to use the wide boards that match the fence.

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?