news from Falling Trees

Hello one and all,
Thought you would like to know what we are all doing here at Falling Trees Lane, so here goes. Bryan and Carolyn arrived here on Monday morning. They had planned to come here on Sunday, but the guys that were working did not get the toilet or shower installed like promised (hangover-no show)so Dad called Randy our contractor and told him how very dissapointed he was so they promised to be out Monday morning and get these installed, so B&C stayed over at Bill & Carla's house on Sun. night. By Monday evening we did have shower and toilet. They brought their cots and are camping out in one room. We have plastic up for the shower door, bathroom door and window. I guess you can rate us as a class B motel, not yet a class A, but comming close. I can't beleive that all our trash piles are all gone, all our burn piles are all gone and things are looking quite nice around here. Bryan bought a bush hog for his tracter and he is so excited that this one works so well. The first one he bought he had to take back after an afternoon of frustration trying to make it work. Tomorrow the 2 workers are supposed to finish up the electrical and the wall board is being delivered tomorrow morning. Carolyn and I had to make room for them to put 26 sheets of 4x12 for the ceiling and 65 4x8 for the walls along with 25 sheets of 4x8 styrfoam insullation. Here are a few pictures I took yesterday incase anyone doesn't think we are working. Last evening we went down to Pikeville and ate at the bar-b-que place-Bryan picked up his bush-hog and we went to the computor store and bought a wireless interenet, which doesn't work. The wire they that was packed is broken. Carl checked all the little connections and one does not make connections. This seems like an everyday occurrance, taking things back. We were supposed to have our shower door installed, but when they were ready to install it, there were no parts or directions. Lowes knows us real well by now!!!!!!!!! I will close before this gets too long. Love you all,SMG

Thank you Mom

I was thinking the other day of my own mother and thought of all the things I have learned from her. When she was living some of these traits bugged me, but they still linger in my heart and mind and I have appreciated them more each day. Some of them are:
l. Her determination-to accomplish something she has started
2. Her persistance-to keep on trying over and over
3. Her strength-she was the strength of our family
4. Her endurance-she endured all the hard work she had to do
5. Her optimism-she always saw the glass half full instead of half empty
6. Her willingness- to always make the best of all her circumstances- I can remember when as a kid she would take dye and brush the dye on the carpet where it was worn to make it look nicier.
7. Her willingness to do any type of work that would help to make ends meet
8. Last, but not least, how she took nothing and made something out of it. I can remember how she made an ice box to go camping out of an old box and lined it herself with insulation and what fun we had as a kid going camping along the river and sleeping in a tent.
These are just a few of the things I thought of and I wish I could tell her now since I failed to tell her when she was living. Thank you Mom, I appreciate all these good qualities you handed down to me. SMG

A few words from Dad

skunks, etc..Lately we have seen a mother skunk and 4 or 5 little ones meandering across the upper part of the backyard. Skunks do not travel in a straight line. they weave and wobble clumsily as if drunk. The little ones were falling all over themselves trying to keep up. They vanished into the woods. Perhaps they will stay there. Last week I peeked into the bluebird box and there were 3 blue eggs. Today they are gone. Snake, I suspect. We will move the box to a slippery pole before next nesting season. Somewhere out in the woods is a monster woodpecker. At least it sounds like one judging from the LOUD drumming reverberating thru the trees.
an arrogant whistle pig sits out behind the barn evenings when we are sitting on the front porch. He seems to be daring me to get the rifle from the quonset hut and drill him with one shot. Yeah, right. Baby rabbits come to eat grass between the rv and house and scamper under the rv when disturbed. That's about all the wildlife from Cumberland Co. Back to Mom. I think we live out in the country, don't you. Carla, if one of these skunks let loose, I'll be sitting on the other side of the room with you!!! I just finished my wonderful shower and I know when you can take one you will just bask in the water and never come out. Just make sure you have plenty of HOT water available. Four days is about the limit, right? Today we cleaned up the house a little. These men don't ever pick anything up. Ofcourse that saves us a little money, I guess. By tomorrow eve they are to have the shower hooked up, toilet in and working and my w/d opperating. We bought the vanity and faucet. Don't know if they can get that hooked up or not, but maybe Dad and Bryan can hook it up. Thank you Lord for blessing me with such a wonderful family. Each one of you are such a blessings and we can all gather around and pray for Carla and Bill in this trying time in their lives. Love, SMG

an amazing thing

It just amazes me how the Lord works. I shouldn't be surprised, but somehow when things like this happen, I just have to say Thank you Lord. He is so great. Today we had to go to Lowes to buy our washer and dryier and 4 more can lights for the 2 guys who are doing the electrical work. Before Bryan and Carolyn bought this house, I thought the Mr. Selby should leave the refrig and gas stove in the house, but he decided to take them with him. At first I was somewhat pertubed since the stove looked like a very good, commerical type stove, which would be good for canning. Be that as it was, it was gone. At Lowes I saw a gas stove that was special order and returned. This was about 1 month ago. Orig. price 1835.oo reduced to 1,000. I looked at it-a Jenn-air stove. Then we saw it weeks later at 900. Then today it was 810. I asked the sales lady to print the specks out for me, which she did. There are more features that I will ever use, including reg and convection oven, bread rising and warming setting and one burner is 15000 BTU great for canning. After checking the specs I aske her if they would take 700. for it. They did!!!!! So, we have a beautiful black Jenn-air gas stove, 1835. for 700. A pretty good bargin wouldn't you say. We also saw a closet door 75. for 10. Ofcourse we had to buy one at reg price since we needed 2, but both cost us 85. Another bargin. Why am I amazed at the way the Lord works. I really don't know why. The 2 guys have all the can lights up and wired and Mon they will probably put in all the electrical outlets. Were hoping that we will have the tolet in, possibly the shower hooked up by the time Bryan and Carolyn are here on the 22. No wall board will be up except one piece behind the toilet. All electrical work has to be inspected before the wallboard goes up. Anyway, the Lord has been so good to us and our prayers for His goodness will be with Carla and Bill when Carla goes into surgery on Tuesday. Love to all my dear children and grandchildren. SMG

a country girl @ heart

Today was a very good day, fairly cool especially in the morning, it was great. We started early in the morning and worked out side all day, cleaning up a lot of the stuff that has been lying around for so long. The tin off the roof in in the lean-to along with a few of the 2x4 that we thought we could use for a shed out back. We got in a truck load of top soil which we hope to use just to fill in a lot of the holes that are on the properity that makes it very hard to mow with my tracter. We are trying to get things outside to look somewhat better even tho we will not seed the lawn out front till fall. We are trying to put blocks at the end of our front porch to keep the soil from washing under the porch. Tomorrow 3 guys are suppose to come and do some work. Two of them are to start the electrical work and Rick is to finish up the facia on the house out front. We'll see if they show up. Sometimes in TN. no one is in a hurry, except me. Last evening both of us mowed, Dad was mowing the field and I was mowing the yard. This afternoon we decided to quit as it was looking like rain, so we got our chairs and sat on the back porch while a light gentle rain was coming down. How tranquil!!!!! We just loved it. We were watching the birds, our new peach tree was blowing in the breeze and yes, I even have a blue berry bush and have had 10 blue berries from it. There are about 10 peaches on the peach tree, but I doubt that they will do anything this year. Too young. We're going to plant the peach tree in back of the RV, but closer to the woods. I want 2 peach trees and 2 blue berry bushes and i cherry tree. Tomorrow, we plan to get our washer/drier and vanity so they can be put in the bath next week HOPEFULLY!!! Dad is feeling much better today and I could tell it as he was enthused about getting these thing done. Each one of you are in our prayers and I will call you tomorrow Carla. Went out to eat tonight and no signal. Love each one. SMG

things I am thankful for

Omitting the obvious, my Lord Jesus Christ as my savior and my family which both are at the top.
1. A good night sleep
2. Getting up once and being able to go back to sleep
3. A very cool night with one big blanket
4. Sun shinning in our window early in the morning
5. The bob whites voices early in the morning
6. Workers that work hard for their money
7. Flowers that are blooming
8. Birds that sing and trying to adentify their song
9. A cool breeze that blows most of the time.
10.A big cold glass of water whenever it is hot.
11.Having the freedom to make decisions and choices.
12 Working together with my best friend.

Lemon cookies

All this talk about lemon cookies..... We just came from the Harle home and not even a smell or scent of lemon cookies!!!! I had my mouth watering for the taste of these delicious lemon cookies that everyone is talking about. The meal was tops, but it just called for something more, like lemon cookies. It looks like everyone is going to have to bake them ourselves and send some lemon cookies to the Harle family. I'm sure this could be interesting when dozen of lemon cookies came pouring in to their household. Lemon cookies, lemon cookies, here we come. SMG

The beauty of TN

We wake up every morning to the sound of "Bob White" bob white and we hear this through out the day and once in awhile see these little quail running along the road or in the grass. We see all kinds of blue birds, cardinals, and many I have not idenified yet. We smell the hay field when we are mowing. Everything is nice and quiet and the smell of fresh rain. All these and many more blessings by living in TN. What a blessings. We are waiting to see some deer, but as yet we have not. We do have a ground hog that seems to own the field by the barn. Living in an RV can be very interesting. We have a smoke detecter, LP and low battery alarm, weather radio alarm and carbon monoxide alarm. Last night was the radio alarm went off. After the electric went out the LP-low battery alarm went off and this morning the smoke detector went off. Who said we would get a good night sleep? After the electric went off and the LP alarm went off we soon found out we had no lights and everything was DARK. Our batteries were dead!!! so nothing worked. Where is our lantern? Ofcourse in the house, so Carl had to run to the house to get the lantern and oil so we had light. Finally, after 2-3 hours the storm passed, we don't need light to sleep, so we went back to bed. Turned off the alarm and didn't get up till 9. What did we do today? Went to town and bought 2 new batteries for the RV. Who said Rving wasn't exciting? Ofcourse the lightening was so harsh that we could see once in awhile. We had, i'm guessing 2-3" rain. Our road to the house has big gullies washed out. It did pour!!!! This evening we went up to pay a visit with Betty when we saw her sitting out on the porch. Bryan you will have to build a survival spot in the basement of your house. Betty said they do have lots of storms. She came down yesterday and said ANYTIME we don't feel safe to come up to her house and we all will go into her basement. That was so nice of her. Tomorrow is the beginning of another week. Oh, by the way our dumpster is gone. How beautiful it is not to see that. Can we sleep through the night tonight? We'll see. Love you all SMG