June 13, 2011 Good morning to you. Such a beautiful day just couldn’t be beat. 67º and full sunshine. We’re supposed to get more rain in the next few days, but I won’t worry about that now. I finally got a good nights sleep last night. Which I really needed, between the thunderstorms and coons, I haven’t slept much for several nights. We’ve been having big thunderstorms, lots of rain, wind, and one night a lot of hail. There was a lot of wind damage around the Quad Cities and the Quad Cities area. Mostly trees falling on houses, autos, power lines across and blocking streets. We got 3-1/2” of rain from three of those storms and it hailed hard for a long time one night. As far as the coons, I guess it just got too wet out there for them so they moved back in the crawl space in the ceiling over part of the bathroom and a little bit of the basement. We found they climb up the antenna pole in front of the house, walk across the roof to the hole they made up over the back door. There was a mother that got in there to have her babies. I don’t know how many there is but there’s several of them. They must be crowded in there because they move around in there all night and I can hear them. I just can’t go to sleep with something in my ceiling. We’ve tried different things to try to keep them out, like when we nailed a sheet of aluminum over the hole and they pulled it up, nails and all. They are really starting to act aggressive now too. The mother and her babies were either coming or going one night and I rattled the door that opens to the basement and the mother was growling loud at me and I was afraid she was gonna try to jump through the window in the door. So I got back and closed the curtain. Then another night one was coming in through the hole and I shined the flashlight in it’s eyes and it was growling loud at me too. But I think I finally came up with a remedy that works. First I put Vaseline all over the bottom part of the pole. It’s aluminum and slippery anyway. Then we got a big bottle of ammonia and sprayed all of it around the hole and back in their den and when they came back that night I heard them moving around a lot and sounded like they went back out and I haven’t seen or heard them since. I’ve heard that ammonia is supposed to keep animals out of the garden. Then around at the front of the house, it’s like watching a nature video, with all the different kinds of birds out there on the feeders, the little chipmunks and ground squirrels on the ground. Now we’re seeing a baby rabbit and a big rabbit out there eating clover just past where my yard ends. It’s cute to watch them running and playing and chasing each other. You probably think I live in a jungle with so many critters all around. We went to the cities on Wednesday of last week. Robert Allison was fishing so we didn’t get to see him this time, but we did take time to go see Dee finally. That’s Frank Dee Allison. His daughter Cheryl was there and they were still working on the house. He said he had quit stripping though and wasn’t going to do that anymore. A guy came and laid a new carpet in one of the bedrooms, Cheryl was painting and I think Dee said he and his brother-in-law had been cleaning out the garage. His brother-in-law is Daryl, but I don’t remember his last name. He’s a nice guy. He had been somewhere and a man was complaining about the woman next door letting her grass get too high in her yard. He said he was gonna call the city and report it. (I think) she was elderly). So Daryl went home, got his mower and came back and mowed the lady’s yard. I said “you’d think if it was bothering the neighbor man that much he could of mowed it his own self for her instead of sitting around complaining.”
We had to go to Tipton Saturday and do some shopping and then we stopped by the cemetery and checked on the grass and of course it needed mowing so we came on home, got the mower and went back and mowed it. I walked up and down a path a few times for exercise while he finished mowing and the ragweed was coming up thick and those little white things all in the air and I’ve had a headache and my sinuses burning and hurting ever since. After we got home, Walt (Bob) mowed part of this yard, then we were fighting the coons and doing other things we have to do and didn’t get through until 10:00 pm. He finished mowing this yard yesterday.
When were at Dee’s he said him and Elaine were going to go to Jeff Heatherly’s house when Elaine got off work. She owns a beauty shop and of course cuts hair so she was going to Jeff’s to cut his hair for him. I thought that was nice of her. Dee’s house is gonna be like new. He got all new bathroom fixtures, even a new basket to keep his corn cobs in. HA! (of course that’s a joke) I sent my letter last week and asked for a picture of Lewis Heatherly and got a call from Bill Merrit and he had made a copy of Lewis’ O.B. and was going to give it to the mayor to send to me, I really appreciate him doing that. I’ll make copies and give to all the relatives around here.
I read my letter last week before I mailed it and it’s a good thing because people would of thought I somehow got a stick stuck in my ear. I meant to say the Dr. took the stitch out of my ear, but left out the last “t” and it look like he took a stock out of my ear. HA! Robert Allison has been catching catfish and putting in his freezer so he can have a fish fry for his grandson’s birthday.
My granddaughter, Lisa, has a birthday June 30th.
Bill and Cheryl White bought property in Tennessee and will be moving down there some time next year after he retires from John Deere. Bill White is the son of June Cross and of course Cheryl is Dee Allison’s daughter.
I think one of their kids lives in Kentucky.
Well I think the old pony express rider is getting ready to gallop up to the mail box on his faithful horse “Risky” so I better get this ready for him to take.
Take care of yourselves and Bye, Bye for now.
