Horse Manure Park

It's Monday. The start of another week of work. It is beautiful outside, I think the kiddo and I will have to get some sunshine today. The shingles are finished. Some time this week the new gutters are supposed to be installed. The contractor, of course, will show up whenever he damn well feels like it. As these improvement projects near completion, our dryer decided to go belly-up yesterday. That's just fantastic , isn't it? We have a repairman coming out today to look at it. It's a good thing I've got a money tree planted in the backyard or I'd be a little concerned about running low on cash flow. I finally got the lawn mowed yesterday. Next on my to-do list is power washing and re-staining the deck, which will happen next week when I'm off again. Then I need to finish our landscaping project we started last year. Our backyard looks embarrassing at the moment. The longer I put off that project the easier it is to forget about it. It's go...

A quick update on things in my neck of the woods. For the last few days I've been brainstorming the new Farm Fest t-shirt design. I came up with an idea and sent it to Brandy (who does all of the hard work with the shirts -- I have the fun part!). But then after discussing it with my t-shirt design committee (made up of my wife... and that's pretty much it) and tossing around some different ideas, I came up with something even better than the original idea. So, I've been driving Brandy nuts (I'm sure) sending her new and improved ideas. But I think the final design is going to be enjoyed by all! I've also been creating a Farm Fest blog (it's more of a website than a blog, really) which is how the invitation will be "sent" this year. With stamps at 44 cents a pop, sending out fifty invitations is no longer a feasible! The Postal Service is truly digging their own grave, aren't they? Anyway, the Farm Fest "blog" will be available soon...

Let the shingling begin. My roof is being torn off as I write this. These guys are moving fast. I stopped by city hall yesterday morning and was raped for $70 for my little piece of paper that said it was okay to put new shingles on my house. Ridiculous. To make matters worse, the building inspector was a pompous bastard. But I guess when you get to call the shots and no one can challenge your authority, you can be King Shit of Turd Mountain. Pardon my French. So another working weekend is upon us. We get a nice little double whammy this time around -- not only is there a full moon on Saturday, but it's also fishing opener at 12:01 AM Saturday morning. Oh, such lucky health care workers we are. The hard core fishermen are fine, because they are here for all the right reasons. It's all the yahoos who file up in their Escalades and Land Rovers from the bowels of the suburbs and pretend to be outdoorsmen for the weekend. They drink too much and forget the laws of gravity...

It's Sunday, Beth is taking a nap so this is a good time to update things. Ava has been battling some kind of upper respiratory bug for the last six days. She seems pretty normal during the day. It's much worse at night (which is to be read: no sleep for anyone). We've tried several different things, but I've not seen much (if any) improvement over the last week. I hate dragging her to the doctor every time she feels a little sick, but after a week you would think she would be getting over it. I definitely don't want this to progress to something worse. We learned that our house will be getting new shingles and new gutters next weekend. I have to buy a "shingling permit" tomorrow. I didn't know there was such a thing, but leave it to the city of Baxter to rape people of every penny possible. A shingling permit? I know they make this stuff up. I'm surprised they don't require a farting permit. Maybe that's coming in 2010? Well, I...

The windows were open today... spring has finally arrived (for good this time I think!). Sara and Jon had a bouncing baby boy late last night. Jacob Scott (or maybe Jakob or Jaycob or J-Kahb??). He was over 8 pounds and 22 inches long (give or take, I didn't get the exact details from my beloved). It was a rough delivery, however, and he was placed in the neonatal ICU, but it sounds like everything will be okay. Please keep them in your prayers. It believe we will have new shingles on our house as early as next weekend. I met with our contractor this afternoon and we've got everything rolling. It will be nice to have that job done. Well, it's about time to go to work. Here comes the weekend. I just dread it.

It's Sunday. My house on Sunday means sitting and watching football. Just like Thursday. And Friday. And Saturday. And Monday. It looks like it's snowed almost half an inch this morning and big flakes are still fluttering down in slow motion. It is finally starting to look like winter, and to tell the truth it is kind of a welcome sight. I guess I better clarify what I mean by that before I regret saying it. Yesterday while driving around, I said to my bride, "I love fall, but I hate this time of year. Everything looks brown and gray, bare and dead. The sun is too low in the sky and sets far too soon, and it's getting colder and colder. I wish it would snow to brighten things up." Now that we have a coating of squeaky new snow, things don't seem as drab. The State Farm guy came out yesterday and they will cover quite a few things, but he rattled stuff off so fast, speaking in his special Insurance Man Dialect, that I didn't catch 10% of it. Not ...

Not much to say today. I should have something to write about tomorrow, though. Supposedly -- allegedly -- a State Farm adjuster is coming out tomorrow to look at our roof. It has been two weeks since I filed the claim and I am quickly failing to see the benefit of having an agent in town. Actually my State Farm agent doesn't even know who I am, but he definitely wanted my vote two years ago when he ran for state representative. That was a funny day. He (his name is Paul Gazelka; what's the point in hiding his identity?) rang the door bell one Saturday afternoon and I thought he dropped in to see how things were going, one of those "I really appreciate your business and was wondering if there's anything I can do for you, Sam?" kind of visits. For 2.12 seconds, I was very impressed. Then he opened his mouth. He handed me a campaign flyer and asked me for my vote in November. I told him that I was a client of his and he did one of those fake, "Oh, of cour...

Ava started watching "Sweeping Booty" and fell asleep on the floor. I will let her snooze for a little while, but not too long. She doesn't like to go to bed if she naps, but if she doesn't nap, she becomes a blood-thirsty beast. Okay, that's a little overboard... but a tired, crabby toddler isn't much fun. We spent much of the afternoon outside, enjoying this amazing late fall day. It hit at least 65 degrees today with brilliant sunshine. Days like this make you feel like everything's good in the world, even if it's just for a little while. I filed a claim today with State Farm and I am waiting for an adjuster to call me. Last year at this time we filed a claim for our camper and the adjuster was on a hunting trip. We'll see how long it takes him to call us to set up an appointment. *** Well, we are on the eve of what will be the most historic election in our nation's history. According to CNN, we are about to elect the first person of...

We’ve had a whirlwind of activity here over the last couple of days. Let’s see if I can catch up. First, here’s a little something to jot down in my notebook of life’s lessons: second opinions are a good thing. On Friday afternoon, Bob Ryan and his business partner (who were recommended by Jon and Charlotte) came out and looked at our roof. Actually, a better word is they examined our roof for over an hour and they traced the leak to a damaged air vent. They actually crawled up inside the rafters and found wet insulation and an obvious point of entry, so they were almost 100% positive this was the source of the problem. They also said our shingles needed replacing (which I knew), and recommended that we call our insurance agent and have an adjuster come out. We have nothing to lose, that’s for sure. The best news is they said our sheetrock did not look damaged at all, so nothing inside the house needs to be replaced. We have an ugly water stain, but no permanent damage. It’s not...

I've been blogging like a madman lately. It's good therapy for me. Time for more therapy. So I've been chewing on this for the last 24 hours... a new roof? That just doesn't sound right to me. My house is only 12 years old. I found one small leak, a presumed leak at that. And this equals a new roof ? Howard and Phyllis did not raise a fool. Something just isn't right with this picture. In the back of my mind, I keep thinking that a contractor is going to tell me I need a new roof no matter what, especially if an insurance adjuster is not in the picture. Could this be the case? I am at a huge disadvantage here, because I am completely clueless when it comes to this kind of stuff. The only advantage I have is what's between my ears, and needing a new roof just doesn't sound right. Another red flag: The contractor who was here yesterday answered his phone right away, and was at our place about an hour after the call. While I appreciate his promptn...

Today has been a lazy day. Beth has been catching up on sleep. She got up at 8 a.m. Then took a nap at 9:30 a.m. Then she got up at 11 a.m. and we all went to Country Kitchen for breakfast, just for fun. For whatever reason, Ava was very well behaved and we had a very pleasant morning. Right now, Beth is laying on the couch taking another nap. I wonder if she's coming down with something? I know what you're thinking... and the answer is no, she's not. We had some rain over the weekend and I noticed that our water stain in the ceiling has grown ever so slightly (I outlined it with a pencil two weeks ago). So when we got home, we called a guy named Art Lordbock, who State Farm recommended. Incredibly, he answered his phone and said he'd be out today (we've tried to contacting another roofer who was recommended to us, but he has never returned our calls, despite leaving two messages. Yes, a typical contractor). Anyway, Art came out about an hour later, survey...

As you can see, I've "redecorated" around here once again. I am getting more and more brave experimenting with different things. The picture above is Ava with her new bicycle helmet this summer. She was very proud of it and ran around the house for days on end with a helmet head. I've also added a couple of widgets which I think are kind of fun. The moon phase tracker is pretty cool, and I also added a little weather widget so you can see what the weather is like here. That should get a bit more interesting this winter when it gets nice and chilly. This has been a trying week so far. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you might remember last year at this time I discovered a hole in my camper's roof. It's October once again, so that must mean I have another hole in my roof, right? Right. Except this time it is in my house. Yesterday, I noticed a dried water stain around one of the light fixtures in the entry way. I tore the fixture apart an...