Here we go again...

We have around four pieces of furniture left to move across to the new house, and we're hoping to figure out how to haul them using a two wheeled dolly and some dumb luck. Maybe nothing will get broken.

My 53rd Birthday came and went. Linda bought me a USB2 160GB storage drive and most of the kids called to say happy birthday. It was pretty nice. We went to dinner, saw part of a live Celtic Christmas Music Show, got some sleep. Not a bad day.

The weather is being almost typical for Oklahoma, meaning that no one knows what is going to happen next. So far we haven't been frozen or snowed in and stuck in the valley. I'm going to get groceries and supplies tonight after work as a "just in case."

That's about it, really. Linda was in and out of the hospital recently. Not sure if it was a mild heart attack or something else. She's got an appointment for a CAT scan in January to take pictures of her heart and check for damage. The doctor gave her some new prescriptions and said she could resume normal activity, whatever that means.

Let us know if you are going to be around for Christmas so we can plan on how many to expect, ok?

Newton's Laws: Bodies in Motion

Tend to stay that way unless they find some place else to move to. So far we (Linda and I) have moved across the yard to a new house we had built, Bree and Matt have moved out of the mobile home they were living in out here on the river, Chris and Chaz have moved, Rick is moving back to Kansas in the near future, Josh and Sherri are talking about moving back to Oklahoma when both of them have finished advanced training, and everyone else is just standing back and waiting to see what happens next.

For me, that would be having my beloved laptop computer in the shop to have its itty bitty mind erased and reformatted. $155.00 latter it's almost like a new computer!

I forgot what a hassle it is to reinstall software, so I bought blank DVD's to make backups of the C: drive...just in case.

Still moving after all these weeks...

And it seems that we'll still be moving when the snow sets in. We've got four, yes, 4 largish pieces of furniture left to move and none of the children who live in the area can be bothered to actually try to help. Yes, I realize that there is a wedding in two weeks, and another in six months. Yes, I realize that one of the kiddies is moving in with her future in-laws, but heck, we're their mom and dad..they could at least show up together on a saturday and make sure that this gets done. Guess I will have to hire someone to come and do it. Means less money to spend for the Holidays on gifts and such...

We love our new house! It's still got a bit of an echo because we don't have stuff on the walls, or the rest of the furniture, yet but it's really neat and we just love it. I'll eventually get pictures up and everyone can see what we're raving about.

Making Pictures

Clearing out some images I've been working on while trying to figure out how to replace the core content of the digital comic I was working on and lost because I clicked the wrong button.

Hope you all enjoy them, I know I had a good time with them.


Queen MarVah
http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=1535603
There was a magazine cover competition that I put this one together for and I forgot to enter her before the deadline. Doncha hate it when that happens.

Dolly Wants to Play
http://www.runtimedna.com/mod/ophoto/index.php?photoid=19396
Much the same thing here, except I couldn't find the Halloween contests prior to some of them shutting down. I wonder if I could still enter this one someplace....suggestions?


Attack of the 250 foot Station Assistant
http://www.runtimedna.com/mod/ophoto/index.php?photoid=19397
I just HAD to do this one. As a deeply respectful fan of bad movies, when I saw Robot Monster's FX freebie I just had to...couldn't control myself... must... make... more... zombie... alien... robot... horror movies!

Upcoming Weddings, holidays, and such

Ok, Tasha and Mitch are getting married October 20 in the small, new park here in Tahlequah. Bree and Mat are getting married April 20 (4/20) somewhere with someone doing something as a ceremony. More later on that.

We won't be home for Thanksgiving this year. We will either be visiting one of our children or hiding in a motel somewhere and letting someone else do the cooking. I understand that Denny's does a good turkey plate....

Christmas is still up in the air. We need to know who, if anyone, is going to be on the homestead for the holiday so we can start making preparations. We also need some basic ideas for gifts. Because of the new house payments we won't have the resources to be as open as we have in the past, but we'll do what we can.

Everyone in the family: you need to send us updated information on your address, telephone numbers, and valid email addresses so I can get the address book corrected.

Love to everyone,
Dad

It's raining again...

This has been one of the wettest summers on record here along the river. We are over a foot above what would be a normal ground water reading currently and that is in addition to what was required to make up for the last three plus years of drought.

The pollen count is incredibly high, as is mold and other goodies, but everything is lush and green still.

Just thought everyone would like to know.

Almost totally moved in

Okie dokie, here's the current update to the ongoing status of the new homestead:

1.We still don't have our screens for the windows..after three months...and as the weather cools it would be lovely to be able to open the windows and allow the fresh *cough* air flow through the house. It would also help keep the electric bill down because we're having to run the AC because there's no straight fan function. Ah, well, we'll have to see what happens.
2. We only have six major pieces of furniture to move and four of those are book cases. We have to pack and move the doll display cabinet, the armoire, book cases, and the old sewing machine that will go at the head of the hallway. Then, the books and we can start sorting from there.
3. Sadly, there were less than 15 days the entire summer we were able to use our new swimming pool, and here it is time to put it away for the year. I think I'm going to just drain it, call for a load of sand to be brought in, have someone come help me pick it up and move it to the sand pit, and level it from there. I'll put a frame around the sand to keep it in place, stack stuff in the middle of the pool, put the cover on so it peaks a bit, and call it good for the winter.
4. Soon as I find the CD I burned all the new pictures off to, I'll copy it and send out the copies rather than take up bandwidth. I think that's a better idea than having everyone try to download half a gig of pix.

That's the update for the moment. The river, like the semester, flows onward.

Love to everyone,
Dad

Mud, Glorius Mud....

The past few days have been the source of high drama and low humor around here. The person who was doing the site preparation (dirt work) came back the next day and dug a trench that is around 130' long, 24" wide, and 24"deep so we would be able to run the water and electric lines to the building site. I just spoke with the NEW site engineer (the old one apparently quit) and found out that they can't put the water and electric in the same trench, even if they are both in separate enclosing PVC pipe channels. I wish someone had mentioned that a couple of hundred dollars ago!

The foundation was dug and the concrete poured for the foundation this afternoon. When I arrived home from work after a hard day grading freshman comp analysis, research, argument, and literary evaluations I found a cement truck stuck in my yard up to its rear axles. This was not as amusing as it sounds. I now have to go out in my yard and pick up a couple of wheelbarrows full of gravel from where they sent yet ANOTHER cement truck to drag the first one out of the hole it had created and they needed traction to do so.

The sub-lieutenant for the site supervisor showed up a few minutes ago and apparently HE will be the one actually supervising the work crews...and they're all from Arkansas, not Tulsa, where we wrote the contracts and signed the deal. The house, however, has to meet Tulsa building codes...many of which don't exist out here on the river. So, I have to have someone come in and trench twice more. Once for the water, and the other for the propane. Great jiminy jumped up jehosephats!

I'm still looking for some place to hang the website for the construction pictures, so stay posted...the best, or at least weirdest, is yet to come!

Exciting News...Exciting News...Exciting News...

We have finally decided that lack of debt was making our lives miserable and that the only way to be happy was to go a quarter of a million dollars into the red. Of course, we're getting a new house out of the deal, but it's the debt that's important, isn't it?

But seriously, folks...the double-wide we have all come to know and love over the past twenty years has reached the point where it will no longer sustain Linda and I as a primary residence. It would cost more to have the old place refurbished than we could get as a loan to do the work, and what with the cost of purchasing a new mobile home being very close to the cost of having something built, we went with building.

Here is what we're starting with:
http://www.ubh.com/choose/homes/savannah.php

We adapted this to our needs and we're looking forward to being able to move in about the middle to end of July of this year.

Gone is the front fence and all the cedar trees that were there. Gone also are most of the persimmon trees that had been in the front yard. The garden area has been scraped and waits for me to get the tiller serviced and start working the new garden. The half-acre on the other side of where the front fence had been is now a huge mud slick due to the site preparation work and there is a trench that runs from the well down the driveway and out into the field. We now have a moat! At least, it seems that way.

We have been taking digital photos since the day we signed the contract and I'll be creating a website that has these photos as soon as I find someplace that will give me the space I need for them. By the end of summer the old homestead will look mostly different, and we're really excited about that.

Now, as far as the existing structure, we are going to divide it into two sections: An apartment and a workshop. We will go in and put up a wall with a door that goes across the area where we now have the wood stove and what was the little bedrooms and den will become an open-space workshop, while the other end, the end with the living room (office), the kitchen, and master suite will become the apartment. We'll be doing basic repairs as we get time and resources but that apartment will be kept ready for anyone who needs it for a visit or an "extended visit."

As of today, we're not sure what the construction schedule is. The builders tell us that the average completion time is 90-110 days after they start cutting up wood and nailing things together. But they have to show up first, and for that to happen it has to dry out enough so they can dig and pour the footing for the house.

Oops...students at the door...much like barbarians at the gate. More Later.