Yesterday, Mama and I burned some more wood in the horse lot. At the same time we cleaned up some of Uncle Rod's trash from behind the barn. Ick. Anyway, I had killed two black widows that were under the tree limbs. I hate those spiders. Never do that kind of work without gloves on--you never know when a black widow may be sitting there. Right after killing the first one, I had a huge gray wolf spider almost jump on me! I had the jitters there for a bit. I don't like spiders. We didn't get done burning wood, but we put a dent in what was there. The next thing that needs to be done after the wood is to put a fence up along the one side. Daddy had said that we would put Snip in with the heifers that we are going to wean, but I don't know if that still holds or not. Daddy is going to build a stall/tack shed contraption too. (That way I don't have to lug my saddle from the barn.) I hope to be able to keep the feed out there too.

Today I went to  P.C. with Grandma and Grandpa. He had an appointment to get him ready for his upper GI endoscopy tomorrow. Anyway, Grandma wouldn't let me park the car, so I went on in with Grandpa...and we went on ahead to the ACC (don't ask me what that stands for). Anyway, by the time Grandma got there she was a little put out. And worn out. The appointment went pretty smoothly...I was able to help answer some of the questions and work as an interpreter...Grandma needs hearing aids worse than Grandpa (but don't tell her I said that!) When we left, she let me go fetch the car. I'm glad because she was tired out. (Her legs bother her and if she's on them for too long she has a lot of pain.) I got Grandpa loaded in, took the wheelchair back into the hospital and hopped in the car. We went out to eat at a place called Elana's and I am still full 4 hours later. (Unusual for me.)  I had this massive chopped steak and onions (forgive my ignorance, but I thought chopped steak was steak sliced up with onions--turns out it was more like a oversized hamburger!) I ate the entire thing, because by the time I was full, there wasn't very much left. I rather wish I had gotten a box. It took a while to get Grandpa back into the car because he was so sleepy and believe me, he gets very slow and argumentative (though not necessarily always nastily so) when  he's groggy. At one point, a hispanic man (with earings and a gotee--not exactly the kind of person one would expect to stop--based on outward appearances) who was walking by slowed down and asked, "Do you need any help?" I laughed (because what else am I supposed to do when cajoling my grandpa to get out of the wheelchair and into the car?) and said, "No. But thank-you!" (Since he couldn't really be of any assistance. Now, had Grandpa been sitting on the pavement...)

Anyhow, I finally got him up (the old hand on the belt trick really helps--I'm a pro at that [uh, that isn't even a humble brag...]) and in the car. Then I put the wheelchair in the trunk. That took two tries because I got the thing backwards the first time. It will only go in the back of Grandma's yellow car one way.

Almost the whole time I was riding in the car I was writing letters...it's easier to be oblivious to Grandma's aggressive driving if you don't have to watch. (Though I did keep an eye out at intersections.)

Now I need to go feed my starving horse :) I hope maybe I can go ride tomorrow--even if I do nothing but walk him. We both need the exercise. (I want him to fatten up, not me!)

        Racheal

 
Sooo, the meeting with Mr. Hendry was pretty successful, even though we didn't set a date for the actual interview. Instead, he sent me home with another stack of stuff to read (about 1/2 inch thick!), a few pictures, and an impression that this man is excited! Good. My 'job' this week is going to have to be: 1) reading the stack of stuff (some of it is on Hendry, some on the Battle of Fort Myers--Mr. H's specialty, some of it on blockade running, some of it on miscellaneous related stuff); and 2) transcribing the audio I recorded. (It's easier than writing it all down on the fly. I can't write that fast and listen at the same time.) While Mr. Hendry was xeroxing copies of stuff for me, I had Daddy sit in as a proxy and got two short room shots.

My impression of Mr. Hendry: other than the fact that he is fairly tall (I'd guess around 6 feet), and obviously has a job where he sits a lot--he is nice, is excited about history (at least this part of it), he has a sense of humor (probably some of which I missed--I'm a bit dull sometimes), and that he was enjoying himself. He helped me out on a few things--like how to spell Captain Hendry's wife's first name, and how to pronounce her maiden name :) Oh, and another thing, he enjoys telling stories...and he is very expressive with his hands. He waves them about as he talks, or drums on the table. He had a couple of rubber bands that he kept twisting around too. (I found that amusing for some reason.)

One of the pictures he gave for me was my favorite picture of Captain Hendry that I've seen. It is clearer than this copy.
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Captain Hendry
In addition, I got a name or two and a recommendation to track down this book or that. I also got regaled with mosquito horror stories from both gentlemen present. (Makes me itch just thinking about it!) And then when Mr. Hendry remarked that the Cow Cavalry probably ate grits and salt pork, I got a hankering for a big ol' plate of buttery grits. (Which I can't have on the GAPS diet.)

Hmmm, that reminds me of a story about a legendary local cowhunter. Following, I quote from a book about him (however, I will leave out the name of both town and county--simply for security reasons):

'Bone was a frequent boarder at the [Town] House, a popular meetin place for [the]County cattlemen. One morning, having finished off a plate of grits topped with a quarter-pound of homemade butter, he ordered another helping of the same. His waitress became concerned about his eating so much high-priced butter. "Mr. Mizell, did you know that butter costs sixty-five cents a pound?" she asked. "Yes ma'am," replied Bone, "and wuff ever cent of it." '

Anyway, to get back on track, Mr. Hendry was quite helpful and I have work to do! See you later!

        Racheal    

 
What!? Sorry...I'm both excited and nervous, thus the outbreak of strange noises :)

Tomorrow I'm headed down for a pre-interview session with Mr. Hendry. He has kindly said that he will submit to being interviewed by me (I wonder if he's guessed how green I am yet? If he's been to Sparks of Reformation Prodcutions and looked at my Director's Blog, it's possible.) With that in mind, I  have spent the afternoon screwing my head around until I have on paper what I want to communicate to our good Mr. Hendry. (Do I need to mention that he *happens* to be Captain Hendry's decendent?) I have 7 points on an outline--the worse sounding one is 'Pick his Brain'. Under this disgusting headline I have placed certain things partaining to the narration.

Anyway, hopefully by the end of the day tomorrow, Mr. Hendry will have a somewhat better idea as to what exactly this crazy young woman wants. Such things like--I'm by no means to be on camera (I did a quick shot of myself the other day--I do not look good on camera--but that isn't why I'm not going to be on camera--I don't want that kind of interview.) If possible I want personal stories about Captain Hendry--drawn from the question topics of course. (That way we don't get way afield ;) )

I plan on taking my camera (and probably the still camera too) and the Zoom with me, not to mention my clipboard with paper and pencil! I printed off the release forms that I will need...if he has pictures that I can use, I'll have to print off another one called a 'Material Release' to add to the 'Appearance' and 'Location' releases.

(By the by, the reports on my progress on this blog are much more fun to read than over on my Director's Blog. I don't have to sound as professional over here!)

        Racheal

 
That's the way I like to stay--especially if I'm getting something done. Sometimes I'm busy doing nothing while walking around in circles trying to figure out what to do. (When that happens, maybe I ought to just sit down and read and forget about someone thinking I'm lazy.)

The day started with laundry and an ironing pile. As ya'll who have know me for a while, I don't like to iron very well. Mom thought it was funny when I told the ironing board, "You and me are going to have to work on getting along better." It's true though, I love my cotton clothes--that wrinkle :)

Around 11:30, Mom asked who was going to take Granddaddy his lunch. It was me. I swept the kitchen floor over there while he ate (after I'd had a few peanuts and sprinkled extra peanut dust on the floor.) Then I buzzed through the dishes--I didn't break any glasses today.

After lunch I did the dishes at our house, more laundry (somehow I never managed to return to the ironing pile), and some computer work. By that I mean making sure the video I shot yesterday was alright. It looked kind of pixelated. However, once rendered and burned to a disk, it looked fine--other than poor lighting and cameraman (woman) work. What ticked me off worse was the fact that it had a time stamp on it! So even if it was decent I can't use it. Believe me, I turned that feature off as fast as I could.

I then grabbed my tripod and camera (and hot-shot) and returned to the pasture to shoot some more video. Today I think my biggest problem was that the tilting joints on my tripod stuck. Once I was done Daddy lubed them for me. It helped. I got some nice shots of palmettos :) (How boring, right?) I also thought Socks was going to try to stick her nose in the lens (she has no qualms about poking her big nose into your face), but she didn't. She understands the meaning of the ol' hot-shot. Obviously, so does Snowflake, because she shied away when she saw me pick it up.

I came in and put the video on the computer and looked at it. About the time I was done, Savannah asked me to run Granddaddy's supper over to him. I watched the last half of the "Rockford Files" episode he was watching with him. I really would have liked to see "The Rifleman" but I left before it came on because I had to go feed Snip. (That and I just now would be getting home...) I drove the pick-up this evening since Mom had the car. I like driving the truck :)

That's the extent of todays rambles...and now I'm ready for my own supper. Hmm, I wonder what it'll be?

        Racheal

 
On what? Oh, on the opening  for "The Florida Cow Cavalry" of course. Yes, you heard that right, I've spent two days (not entire days, by the way) attempting to build and building the opening--for the second time. For a grand total of 2 minutes and 5o frames (approx. 50 seconds, in this case.)

I got rather frustrated yesterday "because the animation preset isn't working the way it's supposed to!" Alright, so it probably was working extactly how it was supposed to (I still don't see how only 58 frames is that useful...) After ranting to both Savannah and Mom, I firmly decided to  make my own. That is what I did today. I went with a totally different look than the first time I attempted this and I like it better. I did have to change the font style, color, and size, but I still like it.
Here's a 'screenshot' to prove that I'm actually doing something and not goofing off. This stuff is fun, but also very time consuming. What makes it worse is that I get the munchies and I really don't need to be eating the whole time I'm building these compositions!

I've also washed a couple of piles of dishes over the last two days, cooked a lunch :), scrubbed a bathroom, took a walk, fed a horse, ran Granddaddy's lunch over to him, did therapy with Grandpa, talked to cows, and practiced my guitar and organ. And now I'm about ready to get off the computer for the day!

        Racheal


Added later...

I went out and shot some video and pictures. Some of the pictures are of palmettos and such stuff, but I took a few of myself (something I am extremely bad at :) ) These are my favorites.
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Got the idea for this one while taking clothes off the line...
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White hat on a blue sky. Funny how the composition on this one is nice, isn't it?
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Shooting myself shooting :) :)
Now I'm going to take the video off my camera :) I hope it some of it is good. I'm not the greatest at this stuff. Hopefully I didn't pan too fast...or too slow.

                                                  R

 
(I don't know how many 'parts' there will be...or when the next instalment shall happen.)

After lunch, the entire family went over to Granddaddy's to start work clearing the old horse lot of the piles of oak branches. After Hurricane Charlie and subsequent tree trimming experiences, the limbs got hauled to what used to be the horse lot--back when Granddad had horses. Anyway, the ladies got to work systematically burning the old wood. (We aren't done yet.) Daddy took the pick-up back to our house to do an oil change.
After clearing most of the small stuff that we could easily pick up, we set to work trying to break the limbs (some of them are serious logs!) up. We thought Daddy was going to return with the chainsaw, but he didn't because he was out of chainsaw gas.  Anyway, both Katherine and I had been hacking away with a dull axe for a bit. Mom finally told me to go see if I could find a sharper axe, reminding me of what I had said eariler: "a sharp axe is probably less dangerous". Well, I found one, but Daddy had to pin the head on. It had a pin, but it was in the wrong place and wasn't very safe. Anyway, I chopped my log (see above picture) and conquered, then Katherine finished off hers :)

In all honesty, I probably shouldn't have messed around with the axe at all. The exercise really didn't make my rib hurt much (laying on my back is worse), but I started to feel it about half way through that branch. [Is it needful for me to say that I'm stubborn...like certain female relatives of mine? ]
Early on Granddaddy cranked up the tractor and came out and watched us. He went back to the house after a while (he probably got hot). After his supper he came out and sat in the cab of the truck and watched us some more. I fed him a few mulberries, or trashberries as they get called around here. I'm pretty fond of 'trashberries' and wonder how they got that name.

        Racheal

P.S. Pictures of Saturday are coming shortly! Check the 'Photo' page!
 
We're off this afternoon to meet up with some old friends from our Louisiana days. (By the way, you must pronounce that "Lous-i-anna".) We normally only get to see them once a year when they come down for the R.C. Sproul conferance. In fact, we didn't think they were coming this year until Lessie called. I can't wait to see Robert and Lessie...they have spoiled us girls rotten over the years, but that isn't why we love them :) Robert is always jovial with a pleasant laugh--you ought to see his 'Pride and Joy' ;) Anyone want to guess what that is? (Hint: It's not what you think.) Lessie always takes a bowl of lemon for her tea. Literally. More than once, she asks for a bowl of lemon and she gets two or three slices; but what she really wanted was a bowl full of lemon. It can get funny.

And that is just a beginning sketch of these dear friends...they are kind of like an Aunt and Uncle to us. Family, certainly :) (Actually, we are closer to them than most of our real aunts and uncles.)

        Racheal

 
Today is Granddaddy's 81st birthday. (I got that wrong on Monday.) Tonight is a big birthday shindig over at a relative's house. I'm planning on taking my video camera and shooting some video--maybe 'interview' people for stories about Granddaddy. That kind of depends on how comfortable I feel. I like this side of the family but don't know them very well, having met most of them only since we retired. I rather doubt that some would let me interview them anyway; being rather camera shy. Maybe I'll put together a birthday video as practice.

I'm planning on rushing off in about half an hour to go feed Snip. I'm taking a hiatus from riding at present due to a suspected cracked rib. Remember when I fell off last time and hurt my hip? Well, three days after that, as I got out of the car to open the gate I noticed a pain in one of my ribs. I figured it was just a cramp (believe me, sitting in th backseat of a small car with three mostly grown girls can be condusive to getting cramps*grin*) but it never quite went away. Then it got worse. Last Thursday (two weeks to the day of my fall), I slammed hard into the saddle attempting a slide stop (which I'm convinced I've been working on wrong anyway). I felt compression in my spine and the pain wrapped all the way around to that rib. Oh, was that was a severe pain! Once I managed to sit back up in the saddle and stop moaning, I walked Snip for a bit then tried a trot. No way, Jose! I decided such was not what I should do. I rode a few times after that but after two days of me complaining about my rib pain, Mom suggested I not ride for about a week. We figure that I might have cracked it when I fell and made it worse with Snip's pogo stick style stops. (There are some days that I have come extremely close to being bounced completely off.) My time off will also give Snip some time for his teeth to finish coming in. Hopefully once he quits teething he'll stop being such a beasty about the bit! (Horses lose their baby teeth too.)

        Racheal

 
I declare! The 'blogosphere' is so tiny! I keep finding that one person's blog is followed by another person who I recognize off yet another person's blog! It's ridiculous! However, I didn't come on here to exclaim over such nonesense.

I did some hunting around in some of our old pictures and found a small number of photo's and line-drawings out of old newpapers that I can use for my documentary. A very small number--but some are better than none.

[By the way have you heard about the double barrel .45 in the style of the 1911? The AF2011-A1? It's nutty! (Sorry, Daddy was checking his Guns & Ammo e-mail  and clicked on the article.)]

Back to the point :) I thought I'd share a couple pictures of my Granddaddy when he was young. Just a quick warning--he was a looker! (So was Grandmother!)

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The Clark Gable mustache days. Granddaddy was a DI during the Koren War.
Now, wasn't that worth it? According to him, he was the meanest Drill Sgt. you could ever have had. The sad thing is, he's proud of it. He also denies that he was trying to look like Clarke Gable--no matter, he could fool you at first glance :)

Granddaddy always calls Grandmother 'my pretty woman' when talking about her. Anyway, it has always kind of mystified me why my lady-like grandmother married a drinking, smoking, rough cowboy. He wasn't a Christian when they got married. It was after the kids were born (or some of them at any rate) that he came to Christ. He quit drinking and smoking, but never left the ranching. 

        Racheal

 
That's me today--groggy. I hate Daylight Savings Time...what good does it really do? Part of my tiredness today may be from Saturday catching up with me. I'm always kind of tired on Monday anyway because we often get home from church late.

I haven't put anything on here in while about Grandpa. Anyway, his hemoglobin levels continue to go down. He's had to have two blood transfusions in two weeks. He has no internal bleeding so it is quite likely that he has bone cancer or leukemia. 

I had some thoughts about God today--musing prompted by certain situations. God loved us while yet in our sins...unfathomable. What is even more unfathomable is that He died for us. (I also like to remind myself that He didn't just die for us, He lived our righteousness for us. This means that I do not have to 'work' to be righteous. I am justified because Christ lived righteously for me and took my sin upon Himself. I can do no other than strive to obey His commands [for, "if you love Me, keep My commandments"]--even though it merits me nothing. SOLI DEO GLORIA!)

        Racheal