Fender bender

Well, on my way to a doctor's appointment in Northwest Austin on September 8th, I was approaching the freeway. It was my turn to merge with the oncoming traffic. I was just about to turn right to get on the access road to 183 when the guy behind me hit me! I didn't know how to feel but I do remember the first words out of my mouth, "You've got to be kidding me"!
Looking in the side mirror I saw plastic pieces flying in the air! Anyhow, there just happened to be an empty, dirt parking lot right after the turn and I pulled in there (they sell Christmas trees there in the winter). I was hoping this guy wasn't going to just ditch me (hit and run) and made sure that he followed me in.
He got out of his car and was apologizing the whole time and I began to feel bad for him. I knew his day was going badly so far. I asked him if he had insurance and he did. It is the law here to carry car insurance. So that was a plus. My neck and back were fine and he didn't hit me that hard but it did break part of the left tail light, bend the fender and dent my bumper along with scratching some paint off. I did depart from the seen after getting all the information from him and told him to try to have a good day regardless of what had just happened.
So all in all it was a total pain in the behind to have to go get it assessed as far as damage and then get estimates where to take it in to get fixed. The funny thing was that I never even thought to that we could pocket the cash and fix it ourselves! Jared did however. So we ordered a new tail light and the Wonderfully Talented Jared installed that and pushed out all the dents. He surprised me the next day! So at least it doesn't look totally ghetto now. Notice in the first picture the left side kind of mangled in. These are both after Jared removed the bumper to get the dent out.
Not only to mention that a few days before I had received a letter calling for a recall on my airbags that could be faulty. If there had to be an accident, he picked a good spot to hit! God's hand is always there each day. And we got our airbags fixed shortly afterward!

Firewood

So there is an empty lot next door. Well the lot actually is not empty - it is full of trees, poison oak, and weeds. Receiving permission from the owner to cut down the dead oak tree, we preceded with caution as we pulled back the fence. Poison oak was everywhere near that tree. Jared came out with a garbage can, clippers, gloves, and dressed in a long-sleeved shirt and pants. I joined him later, cutting up stumps and thorny vines so we wouldn't trip on them coming out with the branches. And I spotted what I thought was a hairy vine intertwined in the tree. But in all actuality it was poison oak! What a heinous plant! We figure that it must have been created after The Fall.
Anyhow, after clearing all that we felt we were in danger of contacting, we had to figure out just how to get the branches down without killing all of the smaller trees that would grow up to fill in the tree we were taking out. That was a bit adventurous. Jared was cutting and we tied one of the big branches. I was to pull it my way so that it would fall in the "v" of the tree. You would have to have been here to see what I mean. It kinda worked and by the mercy of God, we were safe and no harm befell us. Sadly enough Jared still contracted poison oak...

Chicken food?

Before planting our crop for the fall, Jared noticed that half of a green pepper was gone and thought that that was weird. Then he looked closer at the plant to notice none other than a tomato horn worm. The closer he looked, the more seemed to appear. We found 3 large ones - the length of Jared's fingers. We thought we would attempt to offer them up as a sacrifice to the chickens but they just pecked them once and left them. They must not be very savory. Can you spot the worms?

Fall Garden

Well, we have been busy doing a lot. One of the things we have been working on was planting our seedlings for the fall garden. The rain that we fasted and prayed for as a stake began to come and so did some cooler temperatures (finally sweet relief!). The peas and green beans and squash (pumpkins, etc.) really enjoyed it. They enjoyed it so much that we decided to take our shades down especially because our tomatoes really needed some sunshine. We discovered that some of the cantaloupe and watermelon vines were still alive after cutting off their water supply. So maybe we will have some fall melon! We are excited to hopefully have more fresh vegetables than this horribly hot summer produced for us. This picture is a little outdated now but if you zoom in on it you can see the bean plants next to the remaining tomatoes.

Meep-meep!

This post is dedicated especially to Sister Parkerson. While visiting this last spring she wanted to see a rode-runner. We never saw one while she was here but we have seen them every once in a while ever since, but not near our home. One day out of the blue this one wandered into our yard just as I got home from work. I was able to get quite close to him for about 20 min and get all the pictures I wanted. It just kept catching his dinner and pretty much ignored me most of the time. When I would get too close it fanned out it's black Mohawk which otherwise was completely hidden. It was eating grass hoppers, about 20 in the time I was following him. And of course he never flew, just ran very fast. It was about he height and length of a chicken, just a lot thinner.

Momma-sized!!

This story is to appease the complaint dept aka Nicole Wallace (hee-hee).

So the other night I went out to get the dog some food in the garage(I fill his bowl every evening so he can eat in the morning). I looked down at the ground only to see a huge scorpion near the doorway (it was making its way toward the house!). Not only was it big but it was really fat! Jared attempted to shew it away but it didn't budge so I pick it up with some long tweezer-type things we have and put her in a glass jug we have.
Jared looked at her the next day and said she has egg-like things on her back with legs. She was a momma with her brood! I thought to myself as I do with all arachnids, "I would love to kill her but I will show mercy only because of the babies". Had she been in my house she would have been sent to the spirit world a long time ago either by me or the little mousers (aka the cats). I let her sit in her "prison cell" for a couple of days.
Anyhow, last night I released her into the wild on the other side of our fence into the overgrown, vacant lot. I figured she needed a meal and a new home for her little creatures.

Canner Box

Our ward recently bought a dry pack canner. This was because the previous canner that the stake owned was dropped a couple of times and we had no canner to use for several months while this one was being repaired. The Bishop did not want our canner to be dropped so he wanted to assign the High Priests to making some sort of box to transport the canner in. I wanted to show up the old men so I volunteered to make it. I first added a handle to the top of the canner - this is probably the main reason it is ever dropped - there is no good way to hold it.

I started with the suitcase idea (two wheels that roll and extending handle) and went to work. Three months later this is what I came up with. It was bigger than I wanted but rolls well and will protect the canner from any damage from dropping. Things I wish were different are first, it does not fit into our trunk, second the canner is a bit difficult to get into the box if you are not able to lift 75 lbs up to mid-torso level and twist it 45 degrees while lowering into position. I gave it to our ward canning specialist for a trial run to see how it will perform.

Inspiration was the key to making this box. I had to think about how every thing would be done for hours, then I would work on the box, think some more work some more. The features in the box constrain the canner to be in the right position. If it is not the lid will not close. When the lid is closed it pushes the canner into place.

Handle added and Finished Box


Accessory Storage


Retaining Features and Canner in Position