Work and then we can Play

Monday

Great morning again.  We have to get some work done the first part of this week so we can camp the last part.

I headed out to cut grass this morning.  The doe and the fawns were back but no sigh of the buck.  I listened to some podcasts while I cut the grass so I enjoy that.  As soon as I cut the grass between the garage and the coach I ran the power cord and plugged in the coach.  I started the refrigerator on gas and will go out later and switch it to electric.  Its good for it to run on the gas once in a  while and it allows most of the amps available to charge the batteries.  Once the batteries get to float I will switch the refrigerator.  Back on the mower to finish the grass.  I checked the water in the batteries, which I try to do every month, they were fine.

Battery levels check and all are good

I spent a while on the phone tonight to prepare for court this week.  We have a team of attorneys at what is called the Resource Center that act as our law clerks to clarify points of law for us and that we can talk freely with about cases.

Bonnie left to pick up Alexus and Chelsea to take them to our Wyoming County fair for the day.  Bonnie is also volunteering in one of the booths today.  Time for lunch and a couple hours to relax before court.  Quiet around here and now its raining, hope it stays dry at the fair.

FedEx was just here and he told me when he was here the other day there were fawns in the driveway. Then he said as he walked to the basement door there was a doe and a fawn up under the deck eating away in Bonnie's flower bed.  Now we know whats eating the plants.

The deer were up in this flower bed

I got a shower and headed up to court.  I thought it would be a quick easy night but I ended up being up there for hours.  I did get home before Bonnie and had some salt potatoes and pork roast for supper.  Bonnie got home from the fair and we watched some TV.

Time for bed I have another court session tomorrow.

Tuesday

Phone rang at 7:45am, it was the A/C guys calling to say they were on the way to give us an estimate.  We are interested in seeing what it would cost to put in some "split systems" in the bedrooms and living room.  I had time to drink a cup of coffee and eat my oatmeal before they got here.  Once here we looked the rooms over and took measurements.  They said they would put the unit under the deck which would be nice and hidden.  Once they left it was time to collect the trash and take it out to the road.  Then mail had come so I took a look at that.  I had time to check on the coach, the refrigerator is cold and I fired up the CAT engine and let the air tanks fill up.  All looks good for our trip on Thursday.

It was soon time to head to court and I spent the rest of the afternoon up there.  Bonnie made supper and now we are getting to relax a little and watch some TV.  Mighty cool this evening 55.

Wednesday

Looks like it got down to 52 overnight, better than the 40's they were forecasting.  Bonnie was up early and heading into the Buffalo City Mission to work with the babies.  I could not go with her to help at the mission as I had a lot of banking and court work to take care of.

I headed to the Post Office and picked up stamps and dropped off some mail that needed extra postage. Then into East Aurora to do some banking for Bonnie.  I made a quick stop at Tim Horton's for an iced capp before I left town.  Then over to Strykersville to take care of some court business and filled up the car while I was there.  I made a stop at court next and finally headed home.  I relaxed a bit and then made a sandwich.

Its been a dark and dreary day that has not inspired me to do much around here.  I need to pack and load the coach but that may wait until tomorrow.  Bonnie will be home and then have to head out to a meeting later this evening.  Well I am going to watch a debate on line and thats about all thats planned for tonight.  Tomorrow we head to Southwoods hopefully I will have some more pictures the end of the week.

Thanks For Checking In!

Planning a little Trip

Thursday

Second time I am writing this.  Up this morning and while it was a bit humid it was cool.  Closed up the windows as it was to get into the 80 today.  Sure wish I knew where all I typed before went to.  I had to head up to court and Bonnie was heading to speak at Woman's Society in Java, then to see her sister.  It was still wet out from the 1/3 inch of rain we got about 3:30am.

I was up at court for a couple hours and came home and had a little lunch.  Then I caught a bit of a nap and decided to watch a couple movies, I do not even remember their names.  Bonnie came home during the second one and another storm rolled in.  This was dropped over 3/4 of an inch of rain in less than 20 minutes.

In the middle of the storm

Lots of water coming off a small roof

The other side

So the grass got watered and will be growing again.

The girls are home from Kingdom Bound and I am sure they will be catching up on their rest.  We had supper and watched some TV.  We also started planning for a couple week trip in September.  We wanted to go to Michigan but that is just not working out.  So we will see some sights in NY and Pennsylvania.  Also hope to see some friends that have been work camping in PA.  If I can find a campsite we plan to visit the big RV show in Hershey PA for a couple days.  We can also visit the Amish, maybe take a train ride, see the PA Grand Canyon, and a large Elk Herd.  So there will be plenty to do and we can get in some relaxing time also.  We might even be able to celebrate a birthday while we are gone.

Well no more rain but they say we may get more overnight.  Its after midnight so I am going to hit the hay.

Friday

It seems to have rained most of the night another .91 inches.  But finally the rain stopped and the rest of the day turned out very nice.  I spent the day on the computer and on the phone.  Pretty much have our itinerary for September written in Jello.  Its still flexible except for the first week.  Took me most of the day to get reservations near Hershey, PA for the big RV show (and I saved 60 bucks by using my Passport America card.  We will also be able to attend the birthday party.  I have the other campgrounds picked out just need to pull the plug and make the reservations.  I sent for some information so waiting to get it before we firm up the route.  Does not look like I did much but it sure took a long time.

After an evening of TV its time to get a good nights sleep.

Saturday

Good sleeping weather and a nice looking morning.  We were both up early for us.  Bonnie was getting ready for her open house and I was heading to court.

Bonnie took here Thirty One products and headed to Elizabeths's to set up for her open house with the help of Alexus.

Pull in to the open house for Thirty-One Products

Elizabeth was busy with Buffalo Mission Motorcycle Run today.  She is up in Tonawanda near the river.

Registration Area

Lots of bikes to the left

Even more to the right

I finished up at court and watched a bit of the PGA tournament being held up in Rochester.  Tiger did good last week and barely made the cut this week.

I decide to cut the front lawn and took the Ranger for a spin in the woods.  All the culverts are clear and the sun made for a couple nice pictures.

Peaceful in the woods

And nice and quiet

 While I was cutting the grass I notice quite a bit of mildew on top of the generator.  So I grabbed the Simple Green some car polish and some rags and cleaned it up.

The before and after.

Bonnie finally got home.  She did not have a good Open House day so we are just relaxing this evening.  Thats about it for Saturday.  Tomorrow is a church and a family reunion.

Sunday

Beautiful morning.  Was making my oatmeal when I looked out the back window.

A rare sighting in the yard

It is rare that we see bucks in the yard and this guy also had a doe and twin fawns with him.  All I had was my iPhone so I zoomed in a little with that to get this shot.  The fawns still have spots but are getting pretty big.  Time to head to church.  We are headed to Attica today to hear some mission trip reports.

Lots of hugs and handshakes at church today, the first of two family reunions for us today.  We also got to hear another report of a mission trip to the Dominican Republic from our friend Farris.

Yes there is a story behind the picture

Then the youth of the church reported on the "Week of Hope" mission trip to Pittsburgh, PA.  Interesting thing to me was that they stayed in the Wilkensburg, High School.  This is the school where some of my cousins attended.  There report was interesting and it sounded like the trip made a good impression on their lives.

We made a quick stop at home to pick up the Salt Potatoes that Bonnie had prepared for the Williams Family Reunion.  Then headed over to her brothers campsite on the family farm.  Must have been at least 30 people that showed up and we had a gorgeous day to sit and visit..

Some of our family

Lunch Time

Jackson with his Dad Nick

Jackson caught a couple frogs

 Most all of the boys spent a lot of time in the creek and were successful in catching some type of critter.  All critters were released back into the wild to allow them to return to their homes.

Mom and Dad relaxing

We headed home around 5:50 and decided to skip any type of formal supper.  We did catch the end of the PGA Championship, not sure who won the NASCAR race just down the road in Watkins Glen.

Thats about it for this week, Thanks For Checking In!

Yard Work

Monday

Looks like another nice day.  Bonnie wanted to go out and spray weeds.  So I got down the 15 gal sprayer and mixed up a batch of weed killer.  I drove and Bonnie directed and sprayed.  We got the majority of the weeds sprayed that we needed to with the 15 gal batch.

All cleaned out and drying

It was lunch time so Bonnie made us a sandwich and then she jumped in the shower.  She is heading to Warsaw to run some errands and I am jumping on the tractor to pick up some stumps and turn the mulch pile over.

Cleaning up stumps

Bonnie left as I finished the stumps.  I jumped on the mower and cut some of the grass out back.  Now time to relax a bit before I head to court.  I must say that I think the computer is performing a little faster now that I have cleaned a bunch of files off it.

Got a little nap and then headed up to court.  Not a real busy night but we did take care of most of the cases for the people that showed up.  I got home earlier than usual and had time to get us both some ice cream.

Black Cherry

Well thats it for today.

Tuesday

Slept great last night looks like another nice day maybe a bit overcast.  I have lots of running around to do for court.  Bonnie is suffering with poison ivy from all her weed wacking so she has laid back down.

I got home from my court duties about 2:30pm had a sandwich and then did some work on the computer.  Around 6 I fired up the grill and cooked some steaks Bonnie had bought.

The steaks turned out good 

They were good and we had them with fresh tomatoes.  While I was out by the grill I noticed there are a couple quince on the tree.

Or is it a bush

They seem to have a bit of mildew.  Bonnie makes jelly out of them.  After supper Bonnie and I worked on a document template that she wanted made and also some labels to put on her Thirty-One catalogs.  Then it was relaxing time and TV time.  Thats about it for today.  We are still trying to fit in a nice week or so trip in September before we end up at Ives Run which should finish up the season for us.

Wednesday

Nice and sunny again this morning, supposed to be in the 80's today and a little humid.  See we do have nice summer weather here in Western NY.  Nothing on the calendar today.  I am hoping to cut a little wood.

Well Bonnie was up and I asked her to help with cutting a little wood.  I promised it would not be more than an hour.  The dentist called and said I could come in for my cleaning at 2:15 today instead of 8am tomorrow, I said sure.  Bonnie and I headed out to the wood pile.

Trying to salvage what we can out of this pile

Bonnie marked and carried blocks.  I cut and cut.

Its a big help when someone keeps the blocks cleaned up

It was not too hot but getting humid.  We quit as promised and we can clean this up in a few more hours and then we can split it up.  Time for lunch and a shower.

All went well at the dentist, no cavities, a followup appointment to fix up one tooth.  On the way home I stopped at Merle's again and picked up some corn for supper.  It got a little humid this afternoon and quite warm.  Bonnie microwaved the corn and it was perfect.  I also had a piece of the leftover steak.

Took it easy the rest of the night and even got a bit of a nap.  Thats about it for the first part of this week.  Thanks For Checking In.

Car Mods

Thursday

The rain woke me this morning but by the time I got up it was over.  I spoke to soon and it rained again, hard but for just a short time.   Bonnie headed into East Aurora to get her fingerprints done so she can work with the babies at the mission, part of the routine background they do.  While she was gone I did the wiring on the CR-V so I can tow the trailer.

I had to clean out the back

This is the converter box

 The whole process took maybe 20 minutes and that was working really slow.  Honda is nice the connector to plug into was just sitting there waiting.  I plugged it in, tested it with the meter and then put the plastic parts back on.

All done.

Now tomorrow I can put on the hitch.

Hopefully this will get installed tomorrow.

Well Bonnie has gone to get a haircut.  I need to stop at court, get something to eat, drop off stuff for Alexus, and then make it to church for practice by 7.  Heard from my buddy and he got a new converter box for his RV and the lights are all working and they are on the road to a rodeo.

Alexus texted me and said she wanted to go with me to church tonight, so I had her order subs and we picked them up on the way.  We both had turkey subs and boy were they good.

Chillin under the tent and eating our subs (she posed for this shot)

Looking like a movie star

After we ate we went in me to practice and Alexus to the youth group.

Surprise a new lighting board

Practice went well and the new lighting board is partially working.  Finally home and time to relax a little and get some rest.

Friday

Beautiful morning, Bonnie is off with her sister and I am headed to court,then hope to work on the trailer hitch.

Before I was able to leave for court, I got a call from my SIL.  She was home today and was able to cut my hair today.  Also her JD GX345 would not start again.

File photo

She just got it back from the shop and they had replaced the ignition module.  So off I went to take care of paperwork at court and then over to Holland.  It rained on the way over pretty hard at times but it quit by the time I got there.  Got my hair cut first and then we looked at the tractor.  We tried a few things and looked at all the wires.  Still not running.

We went in to look at some paperwork, books, and the internet.  Also had lunch while we were in.  Back out to the shed and we moved the mower outside the shed.  I checked what they call the time delay module and tried to bypass it as it said on the internet, still would not start.  Checked the carburetor and checked the solenoid that is in it and not sure it was working right but the gas was flowing so thats good.  Finally decided it must be the ignition module again.  I left and she called the shop, they will pick it up Monday.

Back home I prepared to put the hitch on the CR-V.

On the ramps letting the muffler cool

So back to the internet.  Everyone says its the time delay module and when they give it a good tap with a screwdriver handle it will work again for a while.  I called SIL and within minutes she called back and said the JD was now running.  I think a new module is in order.

$20 module

Back to putting the hitch on.  It took me about an hour.  A second pair of hands would have been handy but a 5 gallon bucket was an ok substitute.

My collection of wrenches, and torque wrench

Looks good and fit perfect

Bonnie got home just as a finished.  Since I no longer have the truck I needed a way to pull our utility trailer.

Now we are ready to relax and rest this evening.

Saturday

Rained some last night but looks like it will be a beautiful day!  I was up early so figured I would hook up the trailer and give the new hitch a test run.  While I was out I got the utility trailer inspected.

All went well and it passed, good for another year.

I stopped at court on the way home and looks like I am ready for Monday.  Bonnie is gone to a Thirty-One meeting so I am on my own this afternoon.

Bonnie brought home old fashioned subs for supper, one is more than a meal.  However I eat the whole thing as it was so good, so now I am really stuffed.

Time to call it a night.

Sunday

Another good looking day and it was a cool night for sleeping.  We were up and got ready for church in plenty of time. We stopped to pick up the girls but turns out they were driving themselves. Today is the start of Kingdom Bound at Darien Lake. There are about 90 youth and leaders going from our church which includes a group that comes every year from West Virginia. Elizabeth is going to help Ben cook for them. It lasts until Thursday morning, hopefully it will be a dry week.

We watched the NASCAR race from Pocano today and took it easy.  Then I linked the computers and I am trying to move all my photos on to the iMac as my hard drive is filling up.  So I am typing this on the iPad, hopefully the files will transfer within a few hours. I also ran the generator on the coach to exercise it, a side benefit is that the batteries will be fully charged.

Bonnie made pizza for supper and then we watched a little TV.  I worked on moving my photos and then clearing them off my laptop to make some room on the hard drive.  Success!  Well its been a good week and its time to get some rest.

Thanks For Checking In.

Good bye July

Monday

Well its the last few days of July 2013 already, where is the summer going.  We have had over 25,000 people view the blog, that amazes me.  Nice cool night to sleep again.  Bonnie was up before me and I heard her talking on the phone.  She had an unpleasant experience with a flight attendant on Air Tran yesterday and she was letting the powers that be know about it.

I read a few emails and then changed and headed out to cut grass.  Got the front yard done and then decided to recut the side hill.  Thats when I ran into the branch that blew down last week in the storm.  When I got close to it it was bigger than I thought and would need to be cut up.  I changed modes and loaded up the chain saw into the ranger and got it cut up.  I cleaned up the small stuff and loaded the firewood size pieces into the Ranger with Bonnie's help.

A few days of heat for Elizabeth

We had pizza for lunch and I finished cutting the hill as the rain started.  I lasted just long enough to get me and everything outside all wet.  Spent the rest of the day working on iBank setting up scheduled transactions and learning the best way to set up reports and redoing my categories.

Well its 1am going to hit the hay.  Hope to cut more grass and wood later today.

Tuesday

So I should have gone to bed at 10pm when I was tired I ended up being up until 3am.  I did sleep good then until 10am.  Then got up and got busy after some email and blogs.

Today turned into a cutting day.  We are also expecting Elizabeth and Alexus to come after work to work on their wood supply.

I started out by cutting some grass, I took a break to help Bonnie, she was cutting weeds and needed the metal blade put on the weed wacker.

She cut a lot of weeds today

While I was off the mower I also headed down the hill into Varysburg to fill up some gas cans and the CR-V.

Gas keeps getting more expensive

Then once home I finished the grass and got the chainsaw ready to cut some wood.

Already to cut some firewood

So I cut up some of the logs in the pile and got them ready to split later.  Of course today the trash needs to be taken out so I put the saw away and took out the trash.

Trash Day is tomorrow

Then I set up the splitter to split the wood as the girls are not coming until 6 and I want to be done long before that.

Ready to start

Done splitting for today

 The girls got here around 6 and went out and stacked the wood.

Another face cord for next winter

Alexus has decided to spend the night and is making brownies for later.  We all have to get up early in the morning.

Wednesday

Up way to early just after 6AM,  this morning, we are headed in to volunteer at Buffalo City Mission today.  Its the first day of retirement for a good friend, may he have a long long retirement.

Elizabeth was getting a new washer and dryer today so we had to unhook her old ones before we left for downtown.  Also the guys brought the new ones and helped hood them up before we left.  We need to do a little work on the dryer vent but they look good.

We made it downtown and dropped Bonnie off at Cornerstone Manor to volunteer in the daycare as a grandma.   Then down to the Mission.  I set up a spreadsheet to use for a mail merge and then got a bit of a break.  One of the guys is retiring and we got to take him out to lunch.  Then once we got back I sort a months work of donor forms and scan them into the system.

Used this machine to scan all the forms in, its pretty fast

Elizabeth spends a lot of the time answering questions

Another project completed

That was about it for the day.  I did do some research on a couple Outlook issues but am not sure that we found the solutions.

I went over and picked up Bonnie and brought her back to the mission.  Then it was the end of the day and we headed home.  Elizabeth made us supper and headed home after Wheel of Fortune.  I did get a call from a fellow RVer and we talked about some electrical issues he is having with his left turn signal.  I think he has a converter box that has gone bad.  If he does not confirm that tonight I offered to go over and help him in the morning.

The trailer hitch I ordered for the CR-V was delivered and sitting by the back door when we got home.

Looks like it had a rough trip

The box was pretty beat up.  I opened it and all the parts appear to be inside, just no packing inside the box.  Maybe tomorrow we can get this installed.  Bonnie said she would help.  Well I need to work on some of our financial statements so better start on that.

I will go ahead and post this.  Thanks for Checking In!