Bert's Musings

We were on our way to look at a tractor this morning. It was over 50 miles to the place. We were within 10 miles when he called to tell us he had just sold it. Guess the Lord has another one in mind for us. We were going to Columbia to take back TV #2 anyway so it was not a wasted trip. On our way back we stopped at the Walmart in Jefferson City and bought TV #3. It was an Emerson, the first two were Magnavox's. When I started unpackaging it I realized that it was the same TV as the Magnavox's, it just had a different name on it. Sure enough, it didn't work either. We have limitations on the size of TV that will fit in the bookcase/entertainment center. Some of the 39" class will fit, but most won't. I was down to two options, Sears or Best Buy. I didn't want to get one from Best Buy so I called Sears to verify that they had a certain model in stock. The guy said he would check and call me back. That was about 6 hours ago and he still hasn't called back. I ...

Last night it got down into the high 60's. I actually felt like going out and doing something. I worked outside until around 1:30. It was 88 when I came in. Below is a photo of our wood boiler and "woodshed". The boiler firebox can handle up to 30" long pieces of wood. The door opening is 14"x15". There is enough room for a lot of wood in the firebox. Kathy and I moved the wood that was already split down to the wood shed. There is probably a face cord. Lengths vary from 15-22". After moving the wood I mowed down the weeds. I'm abusing our Craftsman lawn tractor by using is to mow over some pretty tall weeds in the back. I sharpened the blades earlier this week but after the sticks and rocks I hit when mowing in the boonies I'm sure they need sharpened again. We still have TV/Satellite problems. We went to the Sam's store in Columbia and exchanged our week old TV for another one. The replacement had the same problems so I called Chuck, the ...

I've already posted about our new HD Magnavox TV that doesn't work correctly (it is going back to the store Monday or Tuesday). We bought a new microwave weeks ago. I finally unpacked it a few days ago and, even though the box was seemingly intact the back corner of the microwave was bent in close to a quarter inch. It is an under cabinet mount so no one can see the dented area. Also it seems to work fine. Rather than go through the hassle of dealing with taking it back I straightened it out the best I could and installed it. Yesterday Sears delivered our new Whirlpool refrigerator and range. The delivery guys hooked the water up to the refrigerator (no big deal since water was already piped to the area behind the refrigerator) and plugged it in. It has now been over 30 hours and we have yet to get the first ice cube out of the ice maker. The manual says it takes 24 hours to get the first batch of ice and that full ice production doesn't start for 72 hours. We will see. The...

The weather guy just said that with our 100 degree day today we are now at 25 consecutive days with highs above 90 degrees. That puts this year in 4th place. The longest stretch was in 1915 when they had 33 consecutive days above 90. Tomorrow the high will be over 100 degrees. The weather guy said it looks like we will break the previous 33 day record. At 10:30 PM the heat index is 87. Today we went to Columbia and bought a new TV at Sam's. We have officially entered the digital age. It is our first flat screen, our first digital TV and the largest screen (39") that we have ever owned. Tomorrow the Dish Network guy is supposed to hook up satellite TV for us, another first. Actually it isn't totally a first. For several of the years we lived in Lebanon, Indiana we had a big "C" band dish. When it quit working we went back to whatever we could get off an antenna. For lunch we went to the HuHot Mongolian Grill. It is Andy's , our grandson-in-law, favorite restau...

We made the rounds visiting relatives and friends in Indiana, Michigan & Tennessee and we are now back in Missouri. We had some issues with the truck we rented but nothing that caused to much of a problem. Tom, Kathy's brother, helped us load things in Tennessee, which helped a lot. Our handgun training course went well last Saturday. Both of us easily passed. On Monday we applied for our Tennessee permits to carry a handgun. We plan on staying Tennessee residents as long as possible since the taxes are so much less there. The Tennessee permit is good in 43 (I think) states. After applying for the permits we picked up the rental truck and car carrier trailer and then loaded the stuff we stored in Tennessee. We rented a car carrier and hauled the car back on it. The cost of the carrier was about the same as the cost of fuel to drive the car. Hauling the car allowed us to both be in the truck and split the driving duties. Monday was a looooong day. Tuesday we drove back to Missou...

Yesterday Tom and I cut down a dead tree, about 15" diameter at the base by 60' tall. It was close to Wendy's house. Actually Tom cut it down, I stood far back and gave him instructions on how to do it so that the tree didn't fall on Wendy's house <grin>. We cut the bottom part into three 10-12' sections. Tom used one of his tractors to pull the sections up near his wood pile. The rest of it was to far out into the woods to reach with the tractor and chain we had with us. The remaining sections are small enough that they can be dragged to the edge of the woods by hand, but by the time we got the other sections out we were to tired and hot to do it. After a break we fired up Tom's wood splitter and split a nice pile of wood. We worked until mid-day, with lots of breaks for cool down periods. Merv took all of us out for dinner last night. The photo below includes Kathy, Lillian (Merv's "girlfriend") and Merv. After dinner we wen...

We have certainly been enjoying our few days here at Tom & Mary Lou's, in Tennessee. We had the bedroom window open last night. It was awesome sleeping weather, the temperature dropped down into the mid 60's. This morning we were out on the porch with them visiting, drinking coffee, looking at the lake and watching the hummingbirds. They have a feeder on the front porch and there are as many as 10 hummingbirds at the feeder, at one time. I don't think there is any time when there isn't at least one or two. Yesterday Kathy helped Mary Lou in the garden for an hour or so and then then went swimming. Tom, Merv (Tom & Kathy's Dad) & I went to Crossville and ran a few errands. We went over and took down a couple of small canopy shelters that had been used for a church function over the weekend. In the afternoon Kathy & I went to Cookeville, an hours drive, to go to the Social Security office. Our Medicare kicks in the 1st of August and we had to straighte...

I can say Happy Independence Day but if the current administration has its way we soon won't have any independence left. They enforce only the laws they choose (and rub our noses in it by giving amnesty to nearly a million illegal aliens) and now the liberal whacko justices on the Supreme Court has given the federal government the power to tell us what products we have to buy and when we have to buy them. OK enough of my political rantings. I do urge all of you to be sure you are registered, and that you actually vote, in the upcoming election. You have to choose who you think will do the least damage to the nation over the next 4 years. Yesterday’s travels were uneventful. We had an enjoyable time visiting with family. We spent time at Mom’s, Coldwater Lake, Michigan; had a late lunch at Auntie V’s (Auntie V is our niece Vickie), in Angola, Indiana;   and then went to Vicki’s home on Lake Gage, near Orland, Indiana. We were able to see lots of family. We stayed overnight at Vi...

We left home at 8AM (CDT) and arrived at Doug & Anthony's, in Indianapolis, IN; a little before 4PM (EDT). Not bad time, the trip is about 400 miles. It took us 7 hours which includes stops for lunch and another stop for gas. Kathy went to have dinner with a couple of friends from Teen Challenge while the guys and I went to La Parada, a local Mexican restaurant. Everyone was happy with their food. The guys and I went over to friends of theirs to look at a 2nd story deck area. The deck needs to be stiffened up. Doug already had some thoughts and between us we came up with another alternate. In the morning we will head for my Mom's, near Coldwater, Michigan. Good night to all and may God bless you and yours.