Breadsticks and Solar Lights

James stopped by after observing at school today and we had a nice visit.  Vera had just baked bread, rolls and breadsticks which James is sampling just before he left.

Of course I had to get a picture of them before he headed home to do homework.

James and I had talked about the solar lights so I went out and took some pictures this evening to send to him.  This is the view looking South from the door.

I took this picture from where we park the Mitsubishi.

This picture is looking West just North of the house.  I discovered looking at this picture that one solar light I had worked on and didn't think it was fixed is actually on and changing colors.

Rest and Rain

 It has been a pretty laid back week here.  After finishing the brake job I took it easy for a couple of days, plus it started raining.

James stopped by and visited for a little while on Thursday.  He is always fun to visit with and we got to hear how this quarter's teachers are doing.

Mik sent me these pictures from the Savanah Banana's game they went to.

Today Vera made me a batch of cocoa mounds, the first ones I have had since she made a batch for Barry while we were in Arizona.  I made a couple of trips to the shop this week and puttered with some solar lights that were not working.  One of them resisted my best efforts and is in the garbage can now.

76 Today!

 

We did the passenger side front brakes today and it went much faster than yesterday.  It helps having all the right tools out and knowing which one to use for each step.  UPS showed up early with an order that had some more solar lights in it so I set them out in the sun to charge all day.  It was a beautiful day, Vera said the digital thermometer read 76 this afternoon.  I hung up the new solar lights after dinner and they look nice.

Brakes and Hattie

 

Yesterday I got out all of our solar lights, checked them out and repaired as needed.  Then I put them up and the yard looked good last night.  Today's project was changing the brakes on the front of the Caravan.  It went pretty good and we got the left front that gave James and I the problem all done.  I am planning on doing the right front tomorrow.  Vera was a big help running to get me tools and when bleeding the brakes.

While I was working on the Caravan I heard Dianne come home with Hattie so I took a break and went over to see them.  She is sure active and can crawl probably faster than I can walk.  The visit was a nice change from working on the van.

Hattie, Kaiser, Lawn and Flowers

 4-18-2024

This is the Happy Thursday picture of Hattie that Laury sent me today.  We both had appointments at Kaiser today so we headed to town about eleven.  After my first two appointments we went to The Country Folks Deli for lunch, they have great sandwiches.  We had some time to kill before Vera's appointment so I visited the local hobby shop.  They mainly have RC car stuff but I found something for the great grandsons.  We still had a while until we had to be back at Kaiser so I wandered around Harbor Freight and managed to spend sixty dollars.  Then it was back to Kaiser for Vera's appointment and our eighth Covid-19 shot.  On the way out of town I remembered that I had told Mik I would come by and check out the mowers that wouldn't start.  Michelle was home from school and Mik showed up a little later.  I found a bad solenoid in one and I believe a bad relay in the other.  It turned out to be a seven hour trip to town but we had a great time and it was a beautiful day.

4-19-2024

We had another beautiful day so I decided to use the thatcher to remove some of the moss from the lawn this afternoon.  Boy was it nice out, I saw 76 on the outdoor thermometer.  This is how it looked after I used the lawn mower to bag the moss and take it to the compost pile.

Jordon and Jacob had a T-Ball game at 5:15 this afternoon so we went down to it.  In this picture Jacob is just starting to run to second base after #1 hit the ball.

Jordon is on second base later in the game, the sun was giving him a little problem while watching the action at home plate.  He did really well today, he made some nice throws and catches while playing first base.

Vera and Debbie watched the game from the bleachers.  Vera packed my chair to the game so I would be more comfortable.

This is after the game was over, if you look close you will see that Jordon has his hand on his forehead.  He had bumped heads with a girl on the team while running to be first in line.  Even though he was hurting he said "Good Game" to each of the other team's players as they touched hands.

After we got home I went out to take the picture of the lawn that is above.  On the way I noticed the Azalea was in bloom so I took this picture of it.

On the way back in I spotted the Bluebells and had to take a picture of them as well.

I had noticed lots of Bleeding Hearts while I was mowing so I ended up my trip outside with this picture.

The Magnolia

 

The Magnolia tree really bloomed this year after being broken by the snow and trimmed by James.

I zoomed up on one branch so the blossoms would show better, they are really pretty. 

I haven't taken many pictures the last week or so, I have been busy putting the trailer wiring in the Caravan.  While I was doing that I also installed a new radio with a backup camera, GPS and a dash camera.  Once that was finished I put the sides that I had been painting back on the trailer.  I also changed the battery in the Smart Car this week with a little help from James, it is under the floor of the passenger side and I could not get it pulled out.  James had it out in about two minutes.

T-Ball

Today we went to Jordon and Jacob's first T-Ball game of the season.

This is Jacob on second base ready to run to third base.

Here is Jordon when he was the third baseman.  He did much better at paying attention and knowing what to do this year.

Jacob is running after a hit, there usually ended up being a bunch of players fighting for the ball.

Jordon is second in line as they meet the other team after the game.  He looked to be about the same height as the other older kids.  It was great fun to watch.

Lunch with the family

 Today I posted February 26th also.  You have to go to the bottom and click on February to find it.

4-3-2024 After doing yardwork yesterday James came up and visited today.  We had a great time sitting in the computer room talking.  I have spent most of this week installing trailer wiring and a new radio in the Caravan.  Figuring out how to get panels off so I could run the wiring for the trailer and backup camera was a real challenge.  I finally got it all ran and have had the radio playing but I am waiting on a couple of parts to finish the job.

4-7-2024 Today we met the family at Stuffy's II for lunch.  Jacob is showing James something on the phone, probably a game he was playing.

We had a great time visiting with everyone, finding out what was new.  Jordon spent a long time with Vera while he colored on the kids activities that Stuffy's provided.  Afterwards we headed home and took it easy the rest of the day.

Another Nice Day

 

James came up today and did the mowing and weed eating.  The place is looking better than it has for several years.  Vera cleaned the border around the flower bed North of the house.  I made a small modification to the pull out drawer in the van so it wouldn't hang up as it comes out.  Then I started installing the trailer wiring, everything went great until one plug wouldn't come apart.  I sprayed it with Corrosion X and left it to sit overnight.  It was another beautiful day with the temperature getting into the mid 70s.

Yardwork

 

Today we planned on getting the ferns around the house cut back, I asked James to come up and help us yesterday at the Easter celebration.

Vera asked us to trim the rosemary for her so James took care of that.

James is by the pile of ferns we have cut this spring.  He is a great help and did the majority of the work.

This is how the North side of the house looked when we got done.  We also did the West and South sides.  It was a beautiful day for working outside, I saw 76 for awhile on the thermometer.