Hot, HOT. HOT!!!

Happy Birthday America on this 4th of July!!

For those of you who knew our neighbor, Evelyn Sylvan, she passed away this last Wednesday evening in a nursing home where she had lived for the last three years; she was 80. And, in another surprise demise, Jonathan lost his job and is now out job-hunting. Fortunately they are frugal and have food storage and I am confident the Lord will bless them.

Let me briefly recap this past week: Hot, Hot, and more Hot! For some reason, that 7-10 day period during August when the temperatures are in the high 90s and the humidity is right up there, came early this year; this past week to be exact. I was seriously tempted to try frying eggs on the trash can lid (that would have been a little difficult since all we have are plastic ones).

In an attempt to reach my goal of 100 loads of limbs to the dump site before the end of the month when the county discontinues this service, it was necessary for me to be out loading around 7 am and be done by 9 am. After that time, it was just too hot outside to work. As it was, I would come in the house drenched in sweat and head directly to the shower. I have two loads to go in two days to make the goal of 100; after that, it will get burned. And this is what I tried to do on Saturday. I started burning an area inaccessible by vehicle about 8:30. I had to quit by 10; “a man’s gotta know his limitations”. The rest of the limbs may have to wait until fall to get picked up. Reminds me of driving the ’50 Ford from NJ to CA in the summer of 1990 with an undersized radiator; I wasn’t sure we would ever get out of Needles it was so hot.

While Mom was out in Las Vegas visiting with her Mom and siblings, Rebecca fixed fabulous meals, her children played gleefully outside in the pool, and I readjusted to having grandchildren in the home again. I mowed the lawn Monday evening; started at 7 pm (it was cooler) and didn’t finish until after dark; good thing John Deere has headlights. The garden got weeded and watered, the chickens were feed and watered and I tried to stay indoors as much as possible.

Sandy made it home late Thursday evening and on Friday we signed the papers on a ‘new to us’ two story duplex next door to our rental house in Midway.
It has a nice, open interior.

We were concerned that the water line might be under the front edge of the house. We’d been told by the water company it wasn’t. So we proceeded with the purchase, then a week or so ago, they said… well, maybe it is. AKKK! However, people told us and the title company had a paper trail that provided us enough clues to be pretty certain the house was built before the water district installed the line. The bottom is currently rented; now to find a renter for the top.

Saturday evening the ward had a pot luck dinner at the chapel. Not a large turnout, but sufficient food and people to make for a good meal and lots of visiting. About 8 pm, Sandy and I took Joshua and Marion to the college to watch their annual fireworks show. We parked on the street and walked about 10 minutes to find a nice clear spot on the campus lawn. At 9:25 pm the fireworks started with a spectacular show of brilliant colors and patterns that continued non stop for 19 minutes, ending with a flurry of various displays. Wow; we were all spell bound by the popping noises and the bright array of colors. The weather was cool enough to make it enjoyable and we were able to get home without much delay, despite the fact that over 10,000 people came to watch the show.

We had been playing email tag with the Stake Clerk over information needed for our mission papers. Finally today the Bishop told us the papers had been sent to Salt Lake City. Now the real wait begins!

This is the much anticipated week of the family gathering. Deborah with two little ones arrives Monday; Wednesday we should see the arrival of: Adam, Savannah, and Denali, Andy and his family, and Dan and Miranda. All will be here with the exception of Jonathan and his family. We think we have enough room for all to sleep here, although it may be a little chaotic. We will let you know next week.

The Birthday Bash... or the Sib's Reunion

Annually we get together to celebrate Mom's birthday. This time I flew to John Wayne airport and spent a few days with Mom in Laguna Woods. Then we drove to Las Vegas where Kathy and Steve had arranged for a lovely timeshare.

We spent time puzzling things out.

And felt great joy at its accomplishment.

We spent an afternoon singing. Susie also practiced the alphorn each day.

We also went to the Bellagio gardens and to a fantastic restaurant there and then to the pastry shop there. One day Sue walked to the pastry shop and brought back a sample of delicious items for breakfast. We went to Ethel M's chocolate company and walked among the cactus garden. It was HOT!!!

We also celebrated Mom's birthday. And we spent some time just chatting and kicking back reading or relaxing.

Weekly review-- June 21, 2009

A Happy First Birthday to Emma Fox on this Friday, 26 June.

This was a shortened work week for us, since we both left town on Wednesday. We were busy organizing the house in preparation for the grandchildren’s arrival; Sandy wanted to get at least three of the living room curtains hung which involved the final sewing and hanging (they do look nice).The yard needed mowing; there were some loose ends to real estate transactions that required attention; we canned 100 #10 cans with wheat, flour, rice; and somewhere in there we found time to eat, sleep, pack and still be civil to one another. Monday evening we held a single adult activity at the bishop’s resort; we had seven youth show up to eat hamburgers, swim in the pool, have a lesson and play games; a fun time was had by all.

Wednesday morning, we drove to Tulsa; there is a ½ of ½ clothing store in Springdale, about half way to Tulsa at which Sandy likes to shop. There also happens to be a Harbor Freight Tool store next door, I suspect so us guys can do our manly shopping while the ladies buy clothes at ridiculously low prices. Turns out I spent more than Sandy and we didn’t even spend $20. We did arrive in Tulsa in time for me to get Sandy on her plane to LA and I continued onto Miranda’s. She came home from work shortly thereafter and we went to C C’s Pizza so I could, well, basically, eat more than I should, but enjoy every bite ( and I did).

Miranda and I were able to enjoy our evening of visiting without staying up too late (Dan is in Chicago with his parents) and in the morning she took me to the airport so I could catch my flight to DC, with a connection at O’Hara in Chicago. I had 40 minutes from landing to take off at O’Hara; it was a good 12-15 minute forced march from one gate to the other, but I made it. They really need speed lanes at terminals for those in a big hurray; there are a lot of slower moving obstacles in those terminals that make it difficult for those in a real bind for time. As we made our approach to Reagan National, we suddenly aborted the landing and went back around for a second try. After about a minute the pilot announced that they were a little high for the first landing and were going around again. First time that has happened to me. I also wondered if the copilot had been at the controls! I took the metro to the end of the yellow line and Dan, Callie, and Marion were there to greet me. We stopped at Five Guys for take out burgers and fries and headed home. First time to be in the ‘White House’; rather confusing floor plan, but I am adaptable. I was able to get the headrest DVD players installed and working by night fall.

Rebecca had the van mostly packed and so getting up in the morning and heading west was an easy accomplishment on Friday. We were on the road before 9 am and drove for 12 hours, traveling over 600 miles, a feat only possible because the children were so well behaved. And I do like their new Toyota van. We stopped in Lebanon, TN at a Sleep Inn; getting the children to bed was not a problem and we all slept well – with the possible exception of Callie, who I am told, fell out of bed with a loud thump! We enjoyed their adequate breakfast and were back on the road before 8 am. Again the children were fabulous and we got to Mountain Home about 4 pm. The first thing I did was set up the two children’s pools for the children to cool off in (it is in the 90s) while Rebecca was busy unpacking. We drove almost 1100 miles in approximately 20 hours, averaging about 24 miles per gallon. The children were fun to be with and so well behaved on the trip! And it is good to be home!

We did hear from the stake clerk that they needed some minor medical info that we were able to provide, but somehow our dental exams got misplaced. So it appears I will need to make copies of those forms and get the dentists to fill them out again.

Sandy will return this Friday after spending time with her mother, three sisters, one brother and one brother in law in Las Vegas. They should have a great time.

The chickens survived our absence, the garden continues to flourish and the weather is hot. Hope all is well in your neck of the country.

Another Week in Paradise

It has been an interesting week of challenges and new opportunities for growth. And as always, we never lack for excitement here. We’ve been enjoying our sugar snap peas from the garden and the lettuce… even as it bolts. The red spikes are bolted lettuce. Far left-asparagus gone wild. Then Sugar snap peas. Broccoli, empty spot where beets didn't grow, onions, beans, tomatoes in back. Tuesday Pat called. They were mowing down the strawberries, did we want to come an glean the field. Sandy did two loooong rows and came back drenched in sweat with about 12 quarts of berries. We've been munching on them all week.

Wednesday night we returned from teaching our last Institute class until August. We had an interesting discussion just before leaving with another couple that is raising chickens and the raccoons that have been diminishing their numbers. As we went out to close up our chicks for the night, all four were on their perches in the top of the tractor, but there was a fifth body on the bottom; it was a possum. We noticed a wound on his side and concluded he was, at least at that moment, seeking refuge rather than a meal. We were able to coax him out and he waddled off in the dark. No harm done to the chickens, but we are keeping a watchful eye on them.

A couple of weeks ago, we had found a ‘for sale by owner’ home in the Midway area that we had looked at and then had it inspected by a plumber and an a/c company. We were right at the limit for what we felt we could spend and still make money. Sandy wanted a termite contract, but the seller was not willing to do that; so we asked for an inspection (that doesn’t cost any money). He found active infestation and there would be at least $3000+ required to bring the house up to standard and get a contract. So we said ‘no thank you’ and agreed to met the seller with our signed paper acknowledging that the cost of repairs exceeded the ‘0’ dollar limit we had written into the contract. The seller called an hour before that appointment and told me he ‘was going to hold us to the contract’. I asked him if that meant he expected us to buy the house and he responded ‘yes’. I indicated that Sandy was out but would call him back to discuss this. She did call back, but he didn’t answer, and he hasn’t bothered to call back yet. Meanwhile we checked with our attorney who advised us to send a certified copy of the declining to purchase letter and stated that we had no obligation to buy the house. We also checked with the title company that is holding our earnest money and they concurred that we were within our contractual rights. However, either he has to sign or we wait until early July when we were supposed to close to get our earnest money back. Not sure what he didn’t understand about the clause that stated we could back out if we found more than $0 worth of repairs that needed doing.

I spent a couple of mornings/afternoons clearing more limbs and now have one entire area cleared! Well, at least until the next strong winds…oh, that was last night! We have had several nights this past week with thunderstorms, the type that roll through at the wee hours of the morning with the spectacular lightening shows that you can still view through closed eyelids and the crashing thunder that sounds like it is in the back yard. I love it! On two separate nights we awakened to find over 1 ¼ inch of rain in the gauge. Saves watering the garden.

Tuesday afternoon, I got a call from the Adult Education Center; the college was out of money for GED classes until the first week in July; that means no more tutoring or teaching until after our family has an opportunity to visit us early in July. Good timing; I won’t have to take time off!

Saturday morning, five of us guys from church helped rebuild a shed floor and install a new ‘carport’ (that is what the appraiser calls the roof to cover your tractor). After five hours we were done. Early afternoon Pam and Frank came over and Sandy taught Pam how to do Raindrop. Sandy demonstrated on me and Pam practiced on Frank. Then I napped only to be awakened by Sandy: she had found another home to go look at, so we drove over to Henderson to take a look. It has its possibilities. By then it was too late to come home and make dinner; we were forced to eat out!

Sandy found a used electric stove for sale and it is installed downstairs in the new kitchen. All we need now is the countertop (on order from Lowes). I finally built new steps to the tree house and fixed the broken railing (ice storm damage) so that the grand children can enjoy the tree house when they arrive.

Sandy has been busy working on curtains for the front window. They are time consuming to sew, but she hopes to have some hung before we leave this Wednesday. We both will drive to Tulsa, where I will put her on an airplane to LA; she will stay with Grandma Marion until Sunday when she will drive up to Las Vegas for the ‘gathering’ with her sibs and mother. I will spend the night with Miranda and Dan and then fly out Thursday AM to Washington DC. The Whites will pick me up and on Friday AM, Rebecca, the children and I will start a two day drive to Mountain Home.

Willow tree and Miniature golfing

Congratulations to: Callie who will be 4 on Monday; Rebecca who will have aged another year on Tuesday; and Jonathan and Kristy who will celebrate nine years of marriage.

The weather is warming, lettuce is bolting, and the lilies in the front garden are so excited. We have several crape myrtle just dying to be planted and want to create some small gardens at the entrance gate to the drive. (If we don’t do it soon, they likely WILL die.) Green stuff covers much of the damaged limbs on the trees now and the grass and vegetation in the fields are about waist high in places. Tom went out to cut downed wood and came in as wet as when we’d done it in the rain. Can we say humidity? Midweek we took the tractor and pulled some of the snags from the large oaks in front. Got nearly a trailer full. Tom finished the second row on this wood pile and he's starting another one behind the barn. Kind of like a squirrel hiding nuts all over the place.

Monday night the Single Young Adults went miniature golfing.

Wednesday Tom and I went shopping for a tree. Our cedar that sort of blocked the view of the house from the drive has taken several hits… and really looks bad. I thought I’d plant the tree nearby and as it grew, take out the cedar. We looked at evergreens, then decided on a willow, as I’ve always loved willows and this is near a drainage ditch. However, willows can get up to 50’ across! So it’s actually planted about 15’ away from our sad cedar. I took pictures. I certainly hope it’s a fast grower!

We have been in acquisitions mode this week. We continue to progress on purchasing a duplex in Midway. As we were driving home from said duplex, we called on a home for sale by owner. Price sounded enticing. On Thursday a crew of people—plumber, heat and air repair, handyman-contractor descended on the house to inspect it. Lots of plusses, some concerns. The termite man comes on Monday. He might be the deal breaker. I did lots of research on a house that was up for foreclosure bid at the courthouse. Tom and I went out twice to check it out. Talked to the neighbor and learned a lot. I learned how to research for title, deed, liens of all kinds—taxes, workmen, medical, and I’m not sure what all else. Some was on computer, some I had to check through books. Found liens. Found a second mortgage that had not been released. Set up interim financing. Went to the court house prepared to bid up to a fixed amount. The opening bid from the bank was about $1400 more than that. So I didn’t bid. It will likely be listed with a realtor and come on the market, but then they will guarantee a clear title, termite inspection, etc. I may try to buy it before it goes on the market. In any case, it’s been a great learning experience.

Our movie theater has a great deal on popcorn. Buy a tub of popcorn for $8 and you can get it refilled through the end of the year for $1. You don’t even have to be going to the movies; you can just come in and get a refill. Friday it paid for itself as we went to see Night at the Museum: Smithsonian. If you liked the first one, I think you’ll like this one, too. We went to a late matinee and were the only ones in this show! That way we could chat and not bother anyone.

Tom spent Saturday morning at the Rasmussens helping tear off an old shed roof, then later at our neighbors helping her trim dead branches from trees. We got the yard mowed. And the tree planted. I spent 1 ½ hours listening to parents talk about how diet and Young Living oils had helped their autistic children and improve their speech, motor control, balance, aggression, sleep patterns and a host of other things to the point that they’d moved from severely autistic to almost normal over a couple of years. Very Interesting! You can find the protocol they used at http://www.oilsforautism.com/

It’s exciting that a week from Wednesday I’ll be at Mom’s. Then the sib’s celebration of her birthday, then kids come visiting! What fun!

Rain and Branson

Happy Birthday to Grandma Marion today!! And Emily (of the CT Foxes) will have her first birthday on Wednesday! And we congratulate Savannah and Adam on the birth of their first, daughter Denali, this past Friday!!

Let’s see what happened this past week. It rained. We weeded the garden. It rained. We mowed the lawn. It rained. I collected more firewood previously cut and stacked it. It rained. We got the microwave installed in the downstairs kitchen and ordered the countertop. It is a race to see if it will arrive in time for me to get it installed before Rebecca and family come to visit in June.

We made an offer on the duplex next to the house we own in Midway and plan to close mid-June. Currently it has one electric meter, one water heater and all the water to both units use the same pipes. The electrician said it would not take much to split the electrical into two meters (the seller gets to pay for that) and the plumber will be able to install another water heater and route the water pipes accordingly without costing too much (we get to pay for this). We will see if it is really that easy. We also noted another house for sale not far from these two and looked at it as well. The current owner has his own house and only uses this one to store a lot of machinery. He does wood working and has some nice tools. He also builds street rods and has a lot of machining tools. I think it would be easier to move a houseful of furniture than all the stuff he has stored there! I got the privilege of crawling around in the attic on a warm day. Not fun; especially since the clearance is about two feet up there, and at one point I literally had to crawl through one space. There is a heat unit with ducting in the attic; but we don’t think it has been used in years since the return air has a 1987 newspaper blocking it. But the price is right and we are doing the numbers routine to see if it is practical to add to our collection. We have the plumber and heat/air guys coming to inspect this week.

Friday we headed off to Branson. The company we have a time share with (opps, that is not the correct term, they are now called: ‘Vacations to Go’) invited us for two nights, three days free plus a gift card to hear an update on our program. I hate these sales pitches, but figured it was worth it. We spent several hours at Silver Dollar City with our friends the Pfeifers on Friday; we had two free tickets and they had never been. He had open heart surgery earlier this month but that didn’t slow him down at all. We had a good time. This was Silver Dollar City’s blue grass and BBQ festival and we heard some excellent banjo and fiddle playing; the BBQ was finger linkin’ too. It was a slow relaxing day for us. Sandy and I basically relaxed on Saturday until our presentation.

We met our sales rep at 2 pm and it started off slow, so I am thinking, it appears we don’t fit the norm for his pitch so this shouldn’t take long. Wrong. Only a deception. He brought in the big guns who talked so fast that she left me at first base even though she was sliding into home plate. There may be no pressure, but they sure go out of their way to tell you that the numbers of “week’s owners” are decreasing and pretty soon we won’t be able to afford the maintenance fees and we owe it to our children to convert to points (for an exorbitant fee of course). Plus we get more flexibility. And if we don’t buy today, it will cost us thousands more in the future. We declined. Then they send over the rep that will sign us out, but first she needs to tell us about how we can lock in today’s price for up to a year by spending money today (which we get back when we use the package they sell us). And she looks puppy dog disappointed when we say thanks, but we aren’t interested. Two hours and 45 minutes later, we finally make good our escape. And I told Sandy that next time she gets to go by herself; but then that may not be a safe thing to do: she just might convert our week to points! We both found it interesting that we were told this time that we only get one chance to hear their sales presentation and take advantage of their reduced price; yet we had a similar sales pitch a year ago which they had documented. So, do they tend to bend the rules when they are hungry or what. At any rate, we figure they won’t be asking us for another sales pitch for while.

It was fitting that today for the third hour of church we met in a combined meeting with the Relief Society and Priesthood; the lesson was taken from Elder Hales conference talk about living providently and not spending money we don’t have. Both of us agreed we made the correct decision yesterday. I enjoy attending the Branson wards; they have such musical talent here with several performing families. We headed home after church to catch up on emails and phone calls. It is good to be home again…and we don’t plan on going anywhere until 17 June.

The chickens are growing and enjoy eating the bugs in the yard. The garden continues to grow; we have enjoyed eating snap peas (they are over six feet tall) and lettuce. And we have managed to keep the weeds under control; wonder how long that will last.

Saga of the Traveling Fox's

Monday we looked at properties. Tom and I have been analyzing our rentals to see the rate of return we are getting, both cash flow and return on investment. Now our goal is to improve that rate of return. It’s been a little stretch because often we’ve gone with our feelings. “I like that house.” Now we need to go with the numbers. “Do we really like the house that will return $27 a month, or would we rather do the duplex that could return $230/month?” Hmmm. We’ve been looking into the duplex. Interestingly, it’s right next to our Midway house.

Wednesday we cleaned house. Miranda, Dan and some of their friends planned to come and stay while we were up in Nauvoo, and the downstairs had not been fully dusted since the remodel project. It needed serious dusting. I also needed to clean up my drapery project still spread across the suite. We packed and left early Thursday morning to drive to Nauvoo for Cyrus and Kendra’s wedding. We stayed at Camp Nauvoo, run by the Community of Christ. It was basic, functional, and just fine for our needs. We went through a temple session, drove around Nauvoo, and spent time with Sue, Steve and their family. It was very enjoyable. Kendra looked lovely in Nana's veil.

The wedding was pleasant and the photographer very good with a zillion people and kids. Here are all the nieces and nephews. Here's the whole Fox group.

We didn’t do any of the historic Nauvoo things, but we did spend an hour looking at a 10 unit apartment building there. A lot of things would have to fall into place to make that acquisition happen, but each look is a good learning experience.

Miranda ended up getting sick, and so they didn’t come to visit. Sigh. Alas, we’d planned on them for chicken feed and care (and we now have a clean house). Our friend Beth stepped into the breach and cared. And our neighbor Barbara noticed we were gone and also stepped in. (we’d tried to call her, but no luck.) So the chickens were fine. The garden got watered, and we had a safe drive back home.

Today we had our interview with the stake president for our mission. So the papers should go in … he said in a few weeks. I guess with a November leave date, he didn’t feel a sense of urgency.

We have rain again today. It’s lovely, green, and warm outside. The trees and plants love it! Alas, the weeds do, too.