How we roll...

Roofer one minute.....on call Dollar General system administrator the next...Tori and Matt are fortunate to have lots of helpers

Demo has started

Tori and Matt closed on Monday and we started demo Monday night.  Working late into the evening every night since....we have come a long way in a short time!

Under Contract!

Have you ever been to Disney? The Rocking Roller Coaster goes 57 mph in 2.8 seconds.... these days I feel like I am on that roller coaster!  Time is flying... Tonight was ANOTHER big night.... Tori and Matt have signed a contract to buy a house.  It is definitely a fixer upper, but it will be an amazing start to their married life.  More pictures to come as they close and start their renovations.

Sir Henry VIII

Today we welcomed our newest addition - Sir Henry VIII.  Henry's story starts in an apartment as a baby pig with two young men.  He was loved, just not in the correct environment.  After about a year he was sent to a race horse farm to live.  There he wasn't abused but rather not cared for.  He was able to break into food and eat until he was so obese that his belly was dragging the ground.  He came into the rescue with sores on his belly.

After we put Molly down last spring, I had been thinking about Dolly needing a friend.  This is when we got interested in Henry - around June of 2015.  At that time, I was so close to adopting him.  I went as far as contacting the rescue, talking to his foster parent and was ready to commit.... Then came Mona, our foster Cane Corso Mastiff.  Once we had Mona, I let the idea of getting Henry drop.  Months passed and I would see posts on facebook by the rescue.  I thought about it but still had too much going on at our house to spend time adjusting a new animal.

Last week I saw a post on facebook that Henry had been in foster care longer than any of the animals in their program.  I told Rod - that is because we are the ones that are supposed to adopt Henry!!!!  After a little discussion, we agreed to adopt.  I filled out the application, had the site visit and was approved in less than 48 hours!

Today was transport day.  Rod and I went out, loaded him up and brought him home!  So now welcome:

Sir Henry VIII

More Driveway Drama

The problem with being behind on blog posts is emotions change.  If I had done a post in October, the emotion would be pure excitement that we were FINALLY getting our driveway done.  We put down chip and tar.  It was so exciting to have a smooth driveway.  I would have posted about the decision making process in determining to go with this rather than asphalt.  I would have probably talked about the cost difference, the maintenance, etc. etc. etc.

But I didn't post that in October and I didn't post this completed picture:

Then if I had been posting in November and December, you would have heard all about the Beaver.  He was so dang cute!!!! But causing lots of problems.  I would have posted this picture of him leisurely swimming around.  I would have talked about all the trees that he was dropping that was upsetting Rod.  I would have talked about Rod having to go down in his waders to clean out the culverts before every rain. I would have joked about how he was such a good dam builder.  Maybe even joked at how quick he could drop a tree compared to Rod.

Here are some of the pictures I would have probably posted:

One of the trees that he ended up dropping

Out for a swim

Look at how he has blocked this 4 FOOT culvert!

But is isn't October, November or December.  It is February.  My emotions have changed one all of the above.....

In January, because of the destruction, the beaver had to go.  Rod took care of that.  There was still clean up at the pond that needed to happen. Several large trees were still down and his den that he build was still on the side of the pond.  But nothing that should cause major problem.. that is unless we got a torrential rain.

Last night the rains came.  There are 3 culverts that are attached and buried under the ground near the bottom of the hill.  This section has never clogged up until last night.  This morning my theory is that since it is close to the den of the beavers... maybe he clogged it?  Regardless, I am now mad at the beaver, glad Rod took care of it, and heartbroken over the driveway.  We did get a warranty on the driveway, I am hopeful that once Rod repairs the water flow in the ditch and repairs the hole in the driveway, that the company will come out and lay the chip and tar back over that part.

Bottom Section of the driveway that was washed away

UPDATE:  Rod has come home from work and we have surveyed the damage.... he tells me it wasn't the beavers fault.  So I guess I am not mad at the beaver.  It was just the culvert was clogged with all the silt that washed down.  Rod says he just cleaned the culverts out in January when we had all the snow.  While they were sledding, he made sure to clean them out while they were down there on the driveway.  So I guess we just got that much hard rain at one time....  bummer...

I Fought the Bee and the Bee Won

Sunny, Warm, 60+ in January!  This is a perfect time for Rod to check on his bees.  Everyone knows the nosiest animal we have is non other than ROSE.  So Rose just had to check out all that Rod was doing.  An hour or so ago, she comes running up to the door wanting in.  I let her in and didn't think much about it.  Then 45 minutes later she is asking to go back out.  As I am walking up behind her, I think she has her tennis ball in her mouth.  I went to pull it out and realized there was not a ball.  That is how swollen her mouth is.  She must have been stung a couple of times right before she came running back to the house an hour ago.  Her snout is very swollen.  The picture doesn't do it justice.  4 benadryl down the hatch and I will be watching her over the next hour or so to make sure we don't need to make an emergency vet visit.

Snowmageddon 2016

Snowmageddon 2016 started earlier than the forecasters said.  They said that it would start mid day but we woke up to snow on the ground.  Luckily the night before, they closed schools in Jackson and Tori was able to make it back home before it all started!  According to the news, this was the largest snowfall in Nashville in 13 years.  Here at our house we only measured 6".  Still a big snow but other parts of the mid state seemed to get more.

The Jeep was the vehicle of choice for the driveway.  It did great.  Tina even got some practice driving in the snow over to pick Peter up to come sledding.

Sledding was the activity of the weekend!

Rod coming down the hill

Peter and Tina

Rose was having a blast.  Look at Matt slinging Peter down the hill

Matt kicking up some spray

Peter towing Tina

At the bottom of the hill.  Tina is hanging on tight

Tina off the sled... she didn't hang on tight enough

The pond

Matt towing Rod

Riding at BlackFriar Farms

Any sunny weekend day will find Rod working on something.  Today was a sunny Sunday.  This meant that he was spending his day working outside.  Chainsaw in hand, he was walking the trails and the driveway cutting down trees that needed to be dropped or just cut up because they had fallen.  

So busy as he was, what does he do when his 16 year old daughter comes and says - "I'm going to go ride PB, do you want to come watch me?".  He quickly puts up his chainsaw, changes his shirt, puts on a clean hat, grabs the camera and jumps in the car with Tina.  

 

New Year

New Year, same frustrations.  Every year when the calendar turns to a new year, I look back and end up beating myself up over things I wanted to do and didn't make time to do them.  This year is no exception.... I have not made a blog post since March of last year!  We had so many eventful things happen that it is hard to believe I never made the time to document them.  All I have to show is a folder on my computer that says "organized pictures"... Organized is a relative term when I am describing my pictures.  Basically that just means that I created a folder with a vague description of the event and the year in which it happened in.  So once again... I am telling myself that this year I will do better.  I am also telling myself that I will go back and post the 2015 events.... (we will see if that happens or not).  So if you see odd posts from the previous year... that is because each month I am going to try to post for 2015 and 2016.   I hope everyone has a Happy New Year!

Tori and Matt are ENGAGED

Lets start a couple weeks back.  In the middle of Rod's favorite store... BassPro... Matt says "I guess now is as good a time as any"... and that was the beginning of another milestone that my oldest daughter is growing up.  Matt asked Rod if he could marry Tori!

So now 2 weeks later I am sitting at my computer on a Wednesday afternoon and Matt calls.  He says "the ring came in early, I'm thinking about proposing this weekend at Fall Creek Falls".  Imagine how excited that I am that he is choosing to do it while the family is somewhat around.  I didn't know all of his plans, but I knew it would probably happen on Saturday.

So Saturday comes and he is carrying the camera bag for us all day because that is where the ring is hidden.  We hiked to a spot called Rocky Point Overlook that overlooks Fall Creek Falls.  To get to that overlook you had to climb down a big hill and then back up.  I was worried that the dogs could not do that part of the climb and would have put whoever was holding the leashes in jeopardy.  So it was just Matt, Tori, Christina and Hunter on the rock.  Matt decided, at the top of the highest point they had climbed, this was the place.  He had Christina aide him in distracting Tori while he got the ring out and then got down on one knee!

Rod and I both got to watch from across the way!  Christina and Hunter had a front row seat!

I'm not sure what all he said to her, but I know she was grinning from ear to ear!

Here are some of the pictures I took of the couple this weekend - both before and after the proposal:

"Will you Marry Me"

Tori and Matt - Cane Creek Cascades swinging bridge

The proposal site from across the valley.  Rocky Point Overlook