What A Ride!

 Yep your eyes are not deceiving you I am actually posting again within a week of the last one. As they say miracles do happen.

You might also see a pattern going on here as of many months. It's either cat problems or tractor issues.
I would not blame you if you took a moment and muttered under your breath "Not a Again!  Enough already with cats and mowing." But in the summer time that seems to be all that his ole Grandma Yellow Hair fills her days doing. Sad I know but I keep telling myself how lucky I am to have a job at my age or in this economy.

After a few hours of mowing I pulled up my tractor to the house to quench my thirst with some cold water. Ten minutes later I crawl back up on Ole Blue and apparently he's not finished with his break because not a sound or purr when I turned the key. I checked and rechecked my gears to make sure everything that should be in neutral was and tried again. Still we are not going anywhere.

Moments like these I am totally puzzled with farm machinery. It happens all too often out here on the North Forty. After a good ten minutes or more I convince myself no matter how much I sit on this tractor in complete confusion of how it could be running so smoothly one minute and dead the next. That of course unfortunately happens to humans too not just equipment. Sorry just my fingers typing what my thoughts were for a split second.

Anyway back to my tractor problems. I give up and decide to jump it off. I go after the backhoe and decide to see if I can use it. No luck the tractor is dead.

I leave it and finish mowing with the Bad Boy Mower. It takes longer but does a good job.

The next day my brother Gary comes over and hooks a chain to Ole Blue and the back hoe. He tells me to get up on the Blue and just keep the wheels aligned with the back hoe wheels. His idea was to pull the tractor to the back of the property under trees where he can work on it. 

Like a fool I figure he knows what he is doing and I climb on for one heck of a ride.  Not  a minute into this he misses running into a utility pole near my house. For some unknown reason he is driving the backhoe but facing me and not looking where he is going. Still as I am writing this I have not figured his reason for this.

Thank goodness he managed to stop on a dime when he heard my screams and saw the horror on my face.

Of course when he stopped that fast I kept going on the tractor and I soon learned how out of control I was because the brakes were not working. Some how I managed to turn the front wheels to keep from hitting the back hoe head on. The wheels connected though and what a mess we were in with the chain wrapped around now the wheel and us both so close to the pole. Somehow Gary maneuvered us out of this close call and reluctantly I let him keep pulling me.

Not twenty yards from the pole I knew that was a mistake. He was going way to fast and I had no control of this monster I was now on. Scary as heck to be so high up on a piece of equipment and your not in control.

Like a crazy woman I am screaming for him to slow down. Then I am screaming at him to just park it but he is being the brother I remember as a boy and totally ignoring me. 

Then much to my horror I realize we are going down hill. OH My Gosh I can tell you I then thought this might be my last tractor ride. He finally woke up and realized I was in trouble. The tractor was now going almost as fast as the back hoe and I was going to run into him. I am trying my darnedest to turn those big wheels to miss him. Once again I get lucky and only connect with the wheels. 

Finally after a lot more screams from me Gary finds the spot he wants to park it. He jumps down from the back hoe and I have to say my heart is racing. All he can say is I wish I could follow you around for a day with a recorder and video you because I could make some money on America's Funnest Home Videos.

He then tells me that after that display I put on he would never guess I worked in a prison. I told him I never rode a tractor in prison. hahaha 

I tried to explain to him that being on something that large and no control was not something I would ever let him talk me into again. Brothers they never change. He probably laughed about it the rest of the day.

I am feeling better since taking the medication for acid re flux. Hopefully I am over the worse part of what ever was going on with me. Your sweet comments in the previous post were as always appreciated so much. It's great to know that I have so many lovely sweet friends in this amazing world of blogging.

I am still stressed though with my two outside cats. Momma kitty is still being  mean to the other. Not sure yet what to do about this terrible problem. 

Still waiting on my bridge. Not a good week running around toothless. Needless to say I made very few trips to town. haha Since Toby ate my bridge others have told me about their experiences with dogs eating dentures and retainers. So warning it seems dogs love anything that has been in our mouths.

I did hide in the movie theater and watched Jersey Boys. If you get a chance to see the movie I think you will enjoy it as much as I did. I thought Clint Eastwood did an excellent job of picking the actors to play the four seasons.

Thank you so much for coming by and visiting with me. I love it when you let me know how you are doing.

Love to all

Maggie

It Could Only Happen to Me!

Don't let this innocent look fool you!

 Toby spent the holiday weekend with me while his Mommy spent the Fourth of July at the coast.  He has been my daughter's companion for 13 years and is very much part of our family.

I don't mind spending the weekend with him but I did worry a little about having him around my Billie Sue because of how she is a very strange cat at times. After a full day under the chase and love seat Billie Sue and Tinkerbell eventually surfaced and just spent their days watching Toby.

By Saturday afternoon I had actually wrote Christi and told her how good Toby was behaving and that all was going well. THEN everything changed in a heart beat or bite in this case.

The last two weeks I have been sick. Not sure what is wrong with me but not a pleasant few weeks. After too many nights of  being deathly ill I went to see my doctor. She diagnosed it as acid re flux. I did not agree with her diagnosis but agreed to give the medication a try. Long story short I was sitting in my chase Saturday evening and I felt sick again. The coughing started and I knew that what was probably going to happen next so I removed my bridge and laid it on the table by the chase.

I left the room for a very short time and upon returning I noticed Toby at the chase with his front paws on it. I walked over to the table to pick up my bridge and it was not there. I immediately got on my hands and knees and looked everywhere on the floor. I then took the chase apart. After finding only crumbs from who knows what meal I then tore the rest of the living room apart. 

I then started to panic because I knew now why Toby had his paws on the chase. He had cobbled down my bridge and was now just looking at me with his big innocent eyes. A look he saves for us after he has done something bad.

My next thoughts were OH No there's wires in the darn thing and now these wires are in his stomach. I did the only thing I knew to do and feeling like the worse baby sitter ever I called his mom. She insisted that Toby did not swallow things like bridges and that I needed to keep looking. 

Again I tore the room up and still no bridge. By now realty sunk in and I realized the darn thing was gone and I would have to buy a new one. This of course was upsetting since just a few months ago I had lost a tooth from this bridge and it was over six hundred dollars to have it replaced and now I needed a whole new bridge not just a tooth replacement. 

The next day his mom picked him up and they tore up my living room with the same luck I had. That evening she phoned me and told me that he had passed my bridge. Not in one piece but in three pieces. 

Yesterday I went to my dentist and started the process again for a new bridge. They felt bad after hearing the story from my son why I needed a new bridge that they gave it to be at half price. What a awesome thing for them to do for me! I was so relieved and happy that it was not going to be $1200.00. 

I can say this will be a Fourth of July weekend that I will never forget. Hope yours was not as crazy as mine and that you enjoyed family, friends and good food. 

Life here on the North Forty has been exceptionally busier than normal. We are in the process of tearing down the house that the Cowboy lived in and a big public restroom that was built to accommodate the big parties and weddings once hosted by the previous owners. 

Still have not completely finished painting the front porch or I would share pictures of it. I have the top completed but the sides and steps are not finished. Too much scraping old paint off has kept me from completing this project.  This July heat is not helping out either.

On my previous post I mentioned my problems with my two outside cats. After having them both fixed the oldest one has turned on the little one and making her life just miserable. Nothing has changed with this situation and is very upsetting to me. My son Chad has been talking to others that have had their cats fixed and some of them have had similar issues. He told me a vet said that she might be depressed since surgery and that hopefully in time she will accept the other cat again. If she continues I will probably have to give one of them away and this would be hard to do but may not have a choice.

Wouldn't it be nice if I could do a post with no problems. haha.....Your a sweetheart for still coming by and checking on this ole grandma. I am hanging in there and hopefully in a few days I won't be toothless but smiling again.

Stay cool and know I think of you often! I hope to stop by your site soon and see how you spent your Fourth of July weekend. 

Love to all

Maggie