ONE MORE THING TO BE THANKFUL FOR

For the last couple of days we would get a spurt of air before the water started to run when you turned the water on in the kitchen sink. I told Inklings that was an indication of a pipe break but we didn't have one in the house so it had to be on the city side of the line. I didn't worry at all about it being on our side of the meter because there were no wet spots and the meter didn't continue to run when the water was turned off.

This afternoon Inklings was doing something in the room with most of our books and heard a tiny noise. She called me to come and listen. I went in and immediately saw where a water leak was in the room above (the kitchen) so I went up to investigate further. There was quite a bit of water under the sink indicating the leak was somewhere close. I turned on the tap and nothing happened. I turned it off and water started running like crazy from the tap for a couple of seconds. I got close to the leak and had Inklings turn the tap on and then off---sure enough the relatively new faucet we had put in was leaking for a couple of seconds after the water was turned off.

I got out my tools and pulled the faucet off (the first rule of plumbing is never touch anything to do with plumbing unless the parts store is open) and took it to the parts store to get another one like it. The guy at the store looked at it and said this is one of ours--I'll just trade you out at no cost (a savings of $69.00). I took it home and did all the replacement things except when I was hooking up the last water line to the faucet I stripped the connection nut (and that is the reason you don't touch plumbing unless the store is open).

We went back to the store and bought a new connection line and I came home and finished the installation. Everything not only looks nice but it works like a champ too.

And now I am happy for the following reasons:
1. The leak didn't show up until after all of our company went home; 2. The parts store was open; 3. The leak didn't do much damage to our books or the house; 4. I was able to fix it myself; 5. It looks nice; 6. I stole Inklings picture of it; 7. We should be in good shape with the kitchen plumbing for a few more years now; 8. It felt pretty good to do something that mattered again.

HOPE Y'ALL HAD A GREAT THANKSGIVING TOO!!!

GREAT THANKSGIVING

We had a great Thanksgiving Day at our house this year. Had Inklings Mom and Dad, one son and his family and all four daughters and their families. Twenty four in all and it was a great day. We live far enough from our kids that it is very difficult to get to see them. They are scattered enough that if we take a trip to see them then we only get to see each of them for a little while. So Thanksgiving was a really good day to see all of them and get to visit.

BEST PART OF ALL WAS THERE WAS NO CONTENTION---WELL NO FIGHTS ANYWAY ;-)

ROAD TRIP

We took a trip to Idaho to try to sell this little piece of land where my Grandmother's house used to stand. It is 0.14 acres and you have to have 0.5 acres in this town to build any structure on. Our only chance at selling this piece of land will be to sell it to one of the two adjacent land owners. I talked to the lady with her house just in front of this property and told her we were going to sell it. I told her what the appraised price was and told her that the appraised value was too high because of the size. I told her what I had paid to get the house torn down and wanted at least that much out of the property. She said she was interested. I told her I would call her in a week and if she wasn't interested then I was going to try to sell it to her neighbor. Hope she buys it---if it goes to the neighbor it makes both of their lands more difficult to manage.

While we were there I tried to clean the headstone for my Grandma and Grandpa. It didn't come completely clean but this picture shows how it looked after I scrubbed it with a full bottle of Lime Away. When I go back again I will go prepared to remove all of the lime scale from the stone. My Grandpa died on my Grandma's 47th birthday. He went out to the farm and didn't come home.

This is a picture of me scrubbing the headstone. When I saw it I was really disgusted that we have allowed their headstone to look that bad.

This is a picture of part of a 26 acre dry farm we own up there. It is always fun for me to see this little piece of land that used to be part of my grandparents land holdings.

ROAD TRIP

We took a trip to Idaho to try to sell this little piece of land where my Grandmother's house used to stand. It is 0.14 acres and you have to have 0.5 acres in this town to build any structure on. Our only chance at selling this piece of land will be to sell it to one of the two adjacent land owners. I talked to the lady with her house just in front of this property and told her we were going to sell it. I told her what the appraised price was and told her that the appraised value was too high because of the size. I told her what I had paid to get the house torn down and wanted at least that much out of the property. She said she was interested. I told her I would call her in a week and if she wasn't interested then I was going to try to sell it to her neighbor. Hope she buys it---if it goes to the neighbor it makes both of their lands more difficult to manage.

While we were there I tried to clean the headstone for my Grandma and Grandpa. It didn't come completely clean but this picture shows how it looked after I scrubbed it with a full bottle of Lime Away. When I go back again I will go prepared to remove all of the lime scale from the stone. My Grandpa died on my Grandma's 47th birthday. He went out to the farm and didn't come home.

This is a picture of me scrubbing the headstone. When I saw it I was really disgusted that we have allowed their headstone to look that bad.

This is a picture of part of a 26 acre dry farm we own up there. It is always fun for me to see this little piece of land that used to be part of my grandparents land holdings.

HALOWEEN

Someone asked me what I was going to wear for Halloween and I told them a western shirt, Wranglers and cowboy boots. Inklings said I should step it up a little and at least wear my black hat.

I never realized until one of my employees told me after I left the district that this was called my bastard hat. She said I only wore it when things were gonna get really bad for someone. I honestly didn't know that was happening. I have three different colored Stetsons. Silver (taupe), brown and this black one. Guess I have one for every occasion. ;-)