Just Missed a Tornado

January 20th, 2010.

Out of the blue thunderstorm and hail hit the farm in the early evening and we lost all satellite connections (TV and internet). A few minutes later, Mike Jackson called, warned us about tornado heading our way. We called Ann to come to the block house for safety. Before we got a chance to check with the Dickeys, everything came into a calm mood, satellite back to life, and there's a breaking news on TV that Canton was hit by the tornado. The radar showed it was going away from us toward Grand Saline.

Bedroom Project Started

January 19th, 2010.

Almost exactly a year ago, we started the demolition work for the kitchen. Now, a year later, here we go again, we started the demolition work for the bedroom.

Wall between bedroom and dining room, before and after:

~0~

The closet in the corner of the room, before and after:

Free Flying Squirrels

January 19th, 2010.

It's time for them to go back into the wild. Hal set them free on the tree by the creek, above Theodore's, the beaver, house (the last picture). There were four of them, one is with James, the tree guy, now. Three are back in their habitat in the farm.

A New Storage Facility in the Farm

January 5th - 17th, 2010

First obstacle: the ditch.

Second obstabcle: The "Delmer's" Gate

The third obstacle: black walnut tree branch on the driveway by the house.

It passes all obstacles.

Being set on its final place.
(Note: The truck hit the Delmer's Gate on its way out though).

Being leveled, the next day.

Looks slanted but it is actually perfectly leveled.

First batch of stuff, coming out from Mike's big white trailer.

John has just brought in the first stuff to the new storage.

Get the freezer out of the storage in Edgewood.

The last, and the biggest, items are checking out of Edgewood storage.

All from two units of storage in Edgewood and Mike's trailer (items from the house before bathroom and kitchen remodeling) fits into the container.
There's even room for Hal's aeroplanes! Now we need a bigger house.

Quacks

We've got seven ducks so far in January. Not a very good duck season, Hal said, but we've been enjoying them. Hal is coming back from duck hunting as we speak, I hear his motorcycle approaching.

Hal all camoed. Can't see him.
~~~~~~~~~~

January 18th - 5 ducks.
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January 3rd - 2 ducks

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John's Boys Got Boars

January 9th & 10th, 2010.
The first one was spotted by Hal when we rode across to check the frozen steam on the ground. Its back legs were injured and it dragged its legs. Deven and Gabriel came to get it and they got it. The next day the boys came with hunting dogs and they got another one but it was too far back in the pasture they couldn't carry it and the motorcycle couldn't get them due to icy weather. So they decided to beheaded it and left everything behind.

Frozen

January 5th, 2010
Cold spell hit East Texas. The surface of bodies of water around the farm were frozen.

Crooked Creek.

The bass pond.

The catfish pond.

Frozen steam from the ground, I guess.

The other creek on the little plot across the crooked creek.

New Year's Day - 2010

January 1, 2010.

The first evening of 2010 was marked with good companies, fireworks, and Louisiana shrimp boil.

Ms. Jeanette Dickey and Mike Jackson

Phil Bailey, Mike Jackson, Ine Burke

A Minnesotan and a Texan

Hal Burke, Darrell Darren, Mrs. Darren, Bonnie Bailey, Phil Bailey, Mike Jackson, Delmer Cole

Once in a blue moon.

The moon reached its full cycle the day before, which is in December 2009, and it was the second full moon in the same month. That's 'Blue Moon' and it's not necessarily blue in color.

Note the big ol' moon peeking through the glass door.