Culvert Part 8 - More Gravel

I wish I knew the number of times that I have posted about gravel.  I'm glad that I don't know the amount of money that I have paid for gravel in the last 2 years.  I'm sure it would have bought a small car by now.  However, more gravel was purchased.

First Rod took the backhoe and pulled some logs around and lined the driveway.  Then three more loads (at @ $450 or so a load) of gravel was delivered.  Rod and I were home alone and we worked until late in the evening spreading the gravel.

Rod also got to find out how fast the backhoe will move.  I was on the 4 wheeler and driving around the gravel to get some chains out of my truck.  The 4wheeler has a tire that doesn't hold air very well and was low.  That tire slipped and the next thing I knew, I was under the 4 wheeler.  It rolled and I was pinned up against the fence with the 4 wheeler on top of me.  Luckily I was not hurt and my phone was in my pocked.  Rod had driven the backhoe back up to the top to pull another log down.  I called him on my phone and said "I am not seriously hurt, but I am pinned under the 4 wheeler".  He came flying down the driveway on the backhoe, jumped off of it before it was totally stopped and then started to head toward me.  Then the backhoe started to roll some more toward the pond and he had to jump back on it and drop the bucket so it would not roll.  Rod was able to lift the 4 wheeler for me to get out from under it and between the two of us we were able to get it righted.


Now fast forward an hour and I am on the little tractor using the box blade.  I get too close to the side where there is about 12 - 14" of fresh loose gravel and the tractor back tire slides.  At this point I am a little scared and I tell Rod I am nervous.  He takes and tells me I can just drive it out of the spot.  I tell him, I have already been under the 4 wheeler and I was not about to tip the tractor over.  So he gets on there to "show me how it is done".  At the point where the left two wheels are coming off the ground, I tell him to stop.  So he was going to take the backhoe to pull it out.  Only the backhoe fuel filter was clogged and it wouldn't start.  So now we get the suburban down there and pull the tractor out.  Rod decides that he is going to get one more scoop of gravel with the little tractor - and blows a hydraulic line!!! At this point I say "We need to stop and go up to the house!"... our luck have obviously run OUT.

Destin, FL and Parasailing!

Laine needed to get away from Middle Tennessee for a little bit. A friend of hers has a condo on the beach in Destin and it was not rented for the week following Shelton's funeral. She asked me if I could go. I took a couple of days off from work and we headed to Florida with Tina and her friend Hayley in tow.

The condo was amazing and it was exactly what Laine needed. A place where Shelton loved to just go feel close to him. We didn't try to do much other than go to the beach, the pool and one afternoon of adventure.

Laine is scared of heights. She saw the parasailer's and said "if I could do that, then I think I can get through anything". I saw that as my mission - to show her she can survive this. Life without Shelton is going to be hard, but she can do it.

So I called the company and booked us on one of the evening trips. For several minutes, Laine was scared but then a certain calm came over her and it was amazing. It is so peaceful when you are up in the air. You can't hear the boats, the ocean, the wind. It is unbelievably quiet. It is certainly a moment that I will always treasure and I think she will also.

I have WAY too many good pictures, so I am going to limit myself to 5...

Tina and Hayley were the first!

A close up shot of Tina and Hayley

This is a picture of me and Laine after she had relaxed and we were on our way back down. At this point we were ready to stay up there a lot longer.

The view from our balcony!

And what boat is complete without two hot guys. Tina and Hayley enjoyed the view while on the boat.

Mom's Away

Well, I guess it doesn't matter why I am not at the house, If I am not here something is going on.

I am staying with my mother-in-law for the several days to help support her. One night I am sitting on her couch with my email, facebook, etc up trying to catch up since I have not been online in a while. What do I see? Tori posting a picture of her running the backhoe!

I don't know if she did it because she wanted to run the heavy machinery or because she knew Rod was in trouble for letting her do it!

MCO - otherwise known as the Orlando Airport

I have been to the Orlando airport many, many times.  Fortunately there have not been too many times where i was waiting... Well today we want to get home.  We got to the airport at about 10:00 and our flight didn't take off until 4:00. 

Since the night before was a long, stressful, upsetting night... Tina used the time as best she could.

As soon as we landed, be went home. I quickly changed my suitcase and put clean clothes in it and we all headed to Laine's. I was glad to finally be back where I needed to be. I took several days off from work and stayed with Laine.

What a Turn of Events

Wednesday morning started off the same... I went to work and they went to play :-)

Today was going to be different, Rod was going to keep the rental car.  They took me to work and were headed to spend the day at the Daytona Beach (which is about 45 minutes from my corporate office).

They didn't spend too much time at the beach because it was really hot.  While there they found a jellyfish on the beach that was dead and all took turns touching it.  Just silly stuff.  They did buy a float and Rod used his hot air to blow it up.  It was a huge whale!  All in all it was a fun time.

After work we ate at the hotel and headed to the pool.  Tori played basketball while Tina swam.  At about 9:00 we were headed back up to the room when my phone rings.  It was Rod's uncle who was calling to tell us that Shelton, Rod's stepdad, had a heart attack.  In our minds it just meant that he would have open heart surgery and probably be fine.  We waited on a follow-up call to see how he was.  It was a total shock and unbelievable when we were told he did not make it.  Shelton at the age of 61 had passed away.

This sent me into shock as well as crisis mode.  I called the front desk and told them we would check out in the morning.  Then I called the airline and asked about flights home.  I got us all on a noon flight on Thursday.  Then I called my boss and told him I was leaving to head back to Nashville and would not be in the office for the rest of the week.

Sea World

Tuesday - same story.. I headed to work and they headed to play.

Today was a Sea World Day. We have all been to Sea World before. One of the funniest stories from our travels happened at Sea World back. We all like roller coasters - the higher, the faster, the better! The Kracken is one of our favorites. So a couple of years ago before we went we checked the height requirements and you have to be 54" tall. We checked Tina and she was right on the nose of 54". So that morning many years ago we walked up to the height bar and she was just shy of touching the height of the bar. So Rod asked the guy if it mattered what shoes she has on. The guy said "all I care about is if her head touches this bar". So we went to buy platform flip flops, walked right back over there, her head touched the bar and we were in line for the ride. When we got ready to load... yep she had to take her flip flops off but it didn't matter. That day we rode that coaster at least 5 times. They loved it.

Obviously she has grown in the last couple of years and is only an inch shorter than me... so nothing like that happened this time. They bragged on a new coaster that is now their favorite - the Manta. Wish I could have been there with them. Guess I will have to hit it the next time.

There are not many pictures from Sea World, but here are a few.

Islands of Adventure

Day 2 took me to the office and Rod, Tori and Tina to Islands of Adventure.

Because I was headed to work before the park opened, they were going to have to take the shuttle from the hotel. They went down to eat breakfast. Tori looks up and says "that looks like a van out there". So Rod heads over to the desk to ask when the shuttle left... only to be told "you probably just missed it". So all three of them go outside, look around and see it at another hotel and they take off running. They get there just in time to get on the shuttle!

They enjoyed their day and when I got off from work I joined them at the park. After I got there we only have time for about 3 or 4 rides before the park closed down for the evening, but we still had a good time.

Tina really liked the twister ride - or at least all the cool pictures and sets that you walk through. The cow was her favorite part. We were going to buy a stuffed cow with the goggles on when we went back on Thursday... but that ended up not happening.

Universal Studios Here We Come

All the trips to Orlando that we have been on, we have never went to Universal Studios, we have always done Disney. I finally need to go back to Orlando for work during a time where the family can go. It has been a while since they have went with me. This time we decided that we were not going to Disney, but instead we were headed to Universal Studios.
Like all of these types of trips, we fly down early on Sunday so that I can spend the day at the park with them and the rest of the week I go to work and they go play :-)

So Sunday we arrived before noon and headed straight to the park. We are all Harry Potter fans and enjoyed the Harry Potter exhibit. The Dueling Dragons was a great roller coaster!

Brandy and Rod

Which way to Hogswart?!

The castles that were built were impressive.

Tori, Tina, and Rod standing in front of the Harry Potter ride.

Scrap Metal

Ok, finally a little money back into our pocket! Rod loaded up the old culvert, some other junk around here and headed to Steiner Lift. Of course, he called ahead to find out their hours. They were open on Saturday.... So the suburban is loaded down, and he heads out. Meanwhile, Tina and I are running errands when my phone rings.... "Brandy, I got here and there is not anyone here". Oh no. I tell Rod that I will try to call them and see what they say. In the meantime, someone sees Rod and walks over to tell him that the heavy machines that do the "large" scrap metal do not operate on Saturday. So now he is all the way downtown pulling the trailer, loaded down and is not able to dump it.

The person that Rod talks to tells him he can take it to a place in Hermitage. Now Rod has called me back, I am sitting in a parking lot looking up the location, the phone number, etc. I finally call and get someone to answer and verify that they will take the specific scrap metal that we have on a Saturday. They will! So now Rod has to head to Hermitage. Remember my suburban is definitely not liking this....

Finally when he gets there and unloads, it ends up being 2 tons worth and they are paying $230 per ton. So certainly only a drop in the bucket of what we have spent replacing the old culvert that was on the trailer, but $460... we'll take it.

When you look at the picture below, notice how the suburban is squatting!

Puppies are now gone.

For 3 of the family it is a sad day.. for Rod it is two less mouths to feed...

We are leaving to go out of town on Sunday. Rod was determined to find the puppies homes before we left. He put an ad on craigslist on Friday morning. Since you are not supposed to put pet ads on there, his ad was flagged and removed. However, before that could happen a man from Ashland City called. He has 23 acres with horses, chickens, pigs, etc. Sounds very much like our place. He wanted both puppies to help guard his chickens. I am sad to see them go, but happy they are not going someplace where they would NOT be on a chain. They will have lots of room to play and going together makes me feel better about it as well.

This morning it has been sad to watch Abby looking for them.

Culvert Part 7

Well it has been a while since I have posted an update on the culvert. I even had to go back and look to see what # post I was on.

On Wednesday, Rod and I had a funeral to go to. Since the visitation was earlier in the day, we both took the day off from work. Rod set it up with Mark to work on the driveway in the afternoon. To prepare, he had to divert all the water. He rigged the water so that it would come through the culvert and through another pipe that he had attached with ratchet straps.


When Mark got here, he sat in his excavator and put the bucket on the hill, Then Rod used his backhoe to bring down the rip wrap and started dumping it over the side (yes.. we had to buy MORE - another $500 worth). Then Mark took his bucket and pressed it into the hillside. In the background of this picture you can see where Mark loaded the old culvert onto the trailer for Rod to haul away.




After they got all the rock in place we called Metro Ready Mix to bring us 6 cubic yards of concrete. Mark took his bucket and they loaded the concrete in the bucket and then he drizzled it over the rocks. This was to create a barrier so that the water does not run under the rocks and wash out the dirt underneath. Rod had to get up there and move his "temporary" flume zoom around so that they could get concrete under it well. This should prevent the dam from eroding away. It is not the pretty rock waterfall that I would like, but it needs to be functional rather than pretty.

Little Piney River

I spent 3 days at my corporate office last week. I flew home on Friday and Rod picked me up at the airport. From there we headed out on our annual camping trip with some of our best friends. We have been doing this trip since 2003. It is a group of 4 married couples. We leave the kids behind and the 8 of us head out.

Scheduling this trip is a nightmare. We all have kids and busy lives. We try hard not to do it on a holiday weekend, but we just couldn't avoid it. I had difficulty finding a camp ground that we could make reservations at. With my flight being late in the evening and not arriving until almost 9 PM, we also had to find someplace not too far from Nashville. We decided to try a private campground that none of us had ever been to.

We stayed at Pinewood campground. Certainly we were not the average camper (we were lacking 5+ tattoos each). With it being private, the amount of beer in the recycle was unbelievable! Also without camp rangers, there was not anyone to police the quite hours. Since we have been the guilty party in previous years of having the rangers come tell us to be quiet as well as sneaking the beer in campgrounds that don't all it.. we really couldn't complain. In the end our site was right on the river and turned out to be just fine. We would have liked some more shade, but we made it.

Friday night Rod and I didn't make it there until about 10:30. We set the tent up in the dark and hung out around the fire. That night it was FREEZING. I clearly was not ready for it to get down into the 40's and we did not have enough blankets. I ended up sleeping in my jeans, shirt, coat, 2 pair of socks and I was still cold.

Saturday morning starts the same every year - blueberry pancakes with sausage. Then we spent about 4 or 5 hours on the river. Since we all own either kayaks or canoes, we didn't have to rent any from the campground. We drove ourselves up to the put in spot and floated back to the camp. The river was very pretty and the rock bluffs were amazing. There was still lots of flood damage from last year visible.

Saturday night we tried a new supper and had Mexican food. It ended up being very good and we all went to bed stuffed! Saturday night with all the alcohol consumed, the sun, and the water - the campground was extremely quiet during quiet hours.

Sunday we always get up, eat a good breakfast, pack up and head home.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend. However, if you are interested in seeing the other years, check out the pictures at chjw.shutterfly.com Each year is a different tab at the top of the page.

Bobbie and Scott - Bobbie has on her life jacket because they flipped two times!


Heather and Charles - they also flipped :-)


Ken, April and good ole Roy - Roy is getting to be an old man, but he still is good for a camping trip.


Rod - as you can tell... I am the photographer of the group!


We did take a tripod - so here is a group pictures. This rock was so cool. On the other side there was another huge rock and there was a tree growing up through the middle of the two rocks


A little picture of some of the left over flood damage from a year ago.