July 25, 2009

The family was tired from the work this week, so Mom took the day off-but my brothers and I sure didn’t.
We started a game of soccer, but it was really hot. Benjamin and I ended up working on a Lego movie. I usually dislike making Lego movies because I’m the post-production man and Legos don’t give you much of a head start when it comes to dialogue, sound effects and ambience. However, maybe I’ll post some of the rough drafts of our LEGO movies on this blog.
That afternoon Benjamin wanted to go down to the creek and fish. Three children of one of our neighbors also came along. A 9 year-old boy, a 7-year-old girl and a 6-year-old girl. The fishing spot that Benjamin wanted to try was about three quarters of a mile away. It’s a little difficult to get through the fields now that there are soy beans planted, but we walked along the edge of the fields and made it to the creek.
The fishing wasn’t great, but that may have been caused by our neighbor’s dog who kept on jumping and swimming in the water and probably scaring the fish away. However, Benjamin did catch one good-sized Sunfish.
I had hoped to make a GTC Outdoors episode while we were at the creek, but it would have been hard with the company. However, I did squeeze out a promise from Benjamin that during our 8 night stay on Table Rock Lake in September Benjamin would help me produce three GTC Outdoors episodes.

July 24, 2009

We had my Grandpa over and had a good dinner. (By the way I made sweet tea and cookies.) Our grandpa gave us an enormous model of the Mayflower to commemorate our trip to Massachusetts. While we were in Plymouth we got to tour Mayflower II-an almost exact replica of the first Mayflower. I believe that the decks were raised a little bit when they made Mayflower II. On board “Master Jones” and the First Mate were played by hilarious re-enactors.

July 23, 2009

I began by cleaning off the roof with the leaf blower. Meanwhile Mom started painting the first gable.
We have a small pond with rock around it that we want to get rid of (I’ve wanted to get rid of it for years-so I’m really excited.) So my brother’s and I set up a little system to filter through all of the dirt and keep the landscaping rocks. It goes something like this:
I use the pick axe, shovel and rake to beat up the dirt and scoop it into a little bin. Next, Noah shakes the bin to get rid of all the loose dirt. The loose dirt lands in a box so we can use it to fill in the pond later. Noah hands the bin to Benjamin who dumps it into a big Rubbermaid box full of water. He shakes the bin around and skims off any leaves that come to the surface. Then he dumps the clean rocks into a box.
Anyway, we almost got the whole pond area done, but it’s pretty back-breaking work.
We had to cut this day a little short because Lydia had to go to the groomer and Mom and Kate went to go see a movie. So my brothers and I stayed at the house and tried to surviveJ. We played a good game of soccer that evening, but it had rained and we were constantly falling and tripping-a good game like I said.
Lydia also got groomed tonight. As you can see from the before/after pictures she almost looks like a new dog. The entire family would rather that she had long hair, but when her hair’s long it get knotted up.
Paint gables I of III
Rake out around pond
Blow off roof

July 22, 2009

This morning Noah took a peek at the other tractor that won’t start up. He played with it a little bit and got it to startup and run just fine. I sure could have used another driver while I was mowing yesterday!
We went into town to pick up the paint we needed for the gables and we also grabbed some pizzas and ravioli to eat while we’re working.
After getting back home in the afternoon, Benjamin began cleaning the white lamp post at the end of our driveway and my Mom began painting above (not on top off) the garage door. I began to wash down the second gable.
Benjamin and Noah had planned to go down to the creek yesterday, but the rain had stopped them and they went down there to fish today.
While Mom painted and I washed the gable we listened to the CDs of Paul Jehle from Liberty Day 2009. He does an excellent job in breaking down the doctrine of interposition and then applies to the government today.
We had also picked up a new door knob from the store to replace the broken one on the deck. I thought it’d be easy, but for some odd reasons it took us a long time to put on.
Replace deck door knob
Wash gable II & III
Wash white lamp post
Paint over garage door

July 21, 2009

After a fairly late night we got up and attached the new mower blade onto the mower deck. After getting the mower deck hooked up I began mowing the yard-it felt good to be on the tractor again!

Some pop-up storms later in the day slowed us down a bit because we couldn’t continue to paint.

We did the following:

Repair tractor blade
Paint screen door
Paint front door area and other trim areas
Mow grass
Tonight I made some excellent cookies and some sweet tea which was quite an accomplishment for me. Because of my slightly inferior housekeeping skills I have been nicknamed, “Domestic Disaster” and “Culinary Catastrophe.”

July 20, 2009

We got up early and after breakfast we wrote a list of projects to work on during the next six weeks before we put our house on the market. However, I’m sure that the list will be twice as long before we’re done because we continually add projects to the list.
Benjamin washed down the garage door and painted it very white-a little too white!
We washed down one of the three gables and hope to be painting it tomorrow.
Noah took apart the down spout of the guttering system and cleaned it out. It had gotten clogged up and the water wasn’t flowing away from the house last time it rained.
I recently cleared some area of our yard that had “grown up” in the past couple years. WE have a few grape vines so I had to be careful when I was cutting all of the underbrush down. There were also a whole lot of thorns so I was pretty thankful for my leather work gloves! Anyway, I dragged all of the branches and thorn-um-plants to a burn pile.
I also stripped some old caulking from a window with a screw driver and utility knife.
“Replace Porch Carpet” is on the list so I pulled off the old carpet and scraped some of the adhesive away. Benjamin & Mom washed the old carpet and put it on the deck.
We have three riding lawn mowers. Zero work. We haven’t mowed in a month (the day before we left for Boston) and although the grass isn’t too tall for tennis shoes it’s still pretty dangerous for sandals.,.
This spring we had gotten two of the tractors fixed, but a mower blade was bent on one and another one won’t even start up. We took off the mower deck and tried to bend the broken blade back in place (try saying that five times fast!!) However, we couldn’t pry it in place plus it wasn’t pliable enough to position it (alright enough with the tongue twisters.)
Tonight we went to Sears & K-Mart to pick up a new mower blade and some paint that wasn’t so white. However, the paint area had been removed and the paint areas at the other stores had already closed down.

Today we marked off:
Replace light bulb in white lamp post
Gather aluminum cans to recycle
Haul away branches
Remove caulking from Noah’s window
Wash down garage door
Paint garage door
Wash down front porch area
Wash gables I II & III
Clean gutter extensions
Clean porch carpet

Tragic Death of Jean Halloway

Late on Saturday night my great-aunt (my grandpa's sister) was killed in a head-on car collision down in Farmington, MO. Five people were killed nearly instantly.
"Aunt Jean" was returning from a high school reunion. She was carpooling with her high school friend, June Barker and her new husband, Walter. They were traveling on a two-lane road and were about a 3 1/2 miles from home when the accident occured. It took place at about 11:45 PM.
The three passengers were killed instantly.
They hit a Cadillac with a couple inside. Mr. Fulton was taken to a near-by hospital, but was proclaimed dead on arrival. Mrs. Fulton was airlifted to a hospital and died soon after.
This tragic tale was the top story on Sunday. KSDK and FOX interviewed my Grandpa at his home. You can watch the news story from FOX here: http://www.fox2now.com/news/ktvi-fatal-car-crash-stfrancoiscounty-folo-080309,0,6198595.story.
Here are the funeral arrangements:
Hoffmeister Funeral Home
1515 Lemay Ferry Rd
St Louis, MO 63125
Visitation: 2-9 Wed
Service: 11 am Thurs
Burial Service following at Shepherd Hills Cemetary
Barnhart, MO 62012
The investigation is still going on. We're really wondering why the car my Aunt was riding in was in the wrong lane. The police don't suspect that alcohol was involved. There was a slight fog, but the road didn't have alot of turns and the accident occured on a straight stretch of Highway OO. Interestingly there weren't any skid marks which shows that neither driver anticipated a collision.
We appreciate your prayers for the three families,
J. Andrew Wong

Michael Jackson Dies-3 Weeks Ago!

For the record:
I’m pretty tired hearing about Michael Jackson’s death.
It just shows that the attention span of the public is longer than I had thought.
Anyone else have the same thoughts?