Our oldest granddaughter graduated from the 8th grade at Norwood R-1 Schools in Norwood, Mo on Tuesday, May 14, 3013. Below are some photos taken of the event. This one was taken prior to the start of the event. left to right - Norwood Superintendent Eaton, Norwood High School Principal Wilbanks, Board member Shawn Chadwell, Board member Didi Richardson, and Board member John Cramer. All the board members present were in the photo and all pictured are Norwood graduates themselves. "Flo" receiving her diploma. Recessional The 8th Grade Class of 2013 - Norwood R-1 Schools "Flo" and her family. The little one on the right is being miffed and her brother was involved in a high school baseball game at Hartville. "Flo" and her Grandmother Kelley "Flo" and her grandparents Campbell, Paul and Linda.
We are now committed as Skeezix and I have dismantled the old greenhouse and there is not turning back now. We continued with this operation until we had it all cleaned up and ready to mow the area. We have greenhouse building materials on hand and ready to begin. The frame is up and ready to continue. Shelves for the plants and the ends are framed in.
South endNorth end North end again. Made the hinge for the door from very used baler belting. Shelves were made from stacking old tires with the rims still inside two high and then laying old tin for the actual shelf. Used screws like the ones for putting on metal roofing to attach the time in place. Dimensions of the greenhouse are approx 14 feet long and 12 feet wide. Have less than $200 invested.
Cheerily
IJK
Seems as if I have not been very active here the last few months. Hopefully with the coming of spring that can and will change. I have been quite busy as the webmaster for the VFW of Mo and my local VFW Post in Mountain Grove, Mo. We changed our VFW websites and upgraded to WordPress. Here is the link to my local Mtn Grove VFW site - http://vfwpost3770.org/mo/ and here is the link to the Mo VFW website - http://vfwmo.org/ I am going to be posting more here though in the future so don't quit coming around. Have a calf buyer coming tomorrow and will get some photos and write a story then for this site.
Brown Swiss cow cleaning her new born calf before she even gets up. She knows how important it is that he get dry and the cleaning process will get his circulation going good.
After wandering around the yard for an hour or so we were narrowing down the site to build the new shop building. We sat here for a spell and envisioned just what we were going to do as we narrowed down the exact spot. Cant start a project without proper planning.
Here we already have the poles in the ground and the nailers on the side and beginning to attach the trusses. We built the trusses for the shop ourselves.
Here Jacob is shown attaching the purloins to the trusses for attaching the metal roofing.
Now we are attaching the metal roofing - have already completed the opposite side.
Attaching the metal siding on the east side of the building. Things are closing in fast now.
Attaching the last piece of trim on the rake.
East side complete with walk through door installed.
We have the building ready and front drive-in doors constructed and hanging.
We added white chat for the floor and here Jacob and his father-in-law Gary are leveling the chat.
Ready to move in and begin.
Figured we needed at least one photo of the lucky wife who now has someplace to banish her husband to. Jacob has built a crude forge to begin with as he learns and gains experience and has began using the shop. Electricity and lighting have been added now as well.
Granddaughter "Lil" feeding a calf for the first time completely by herself with no assistance from me. I was busy with other calves and she thought she would try. She will turn 5 in January.
IJK
My good friend, Ed Hawley and I had reason to travel to Branson, Mo on October 13, 2012 and we missed our October VFW meeting at Post 3770 in Mtn. Grove, Mo. I also was forced to miss a "Family Reunion" the same day. We had committed in November, 2011 to attend the annual convention of the "Association of Charitable Games of Missouri". We left here shortly after 7 am with directions found on MapQuest to find the hotel it was being held in. We arrived there just after 9:00 a.m. and were greeted by the President of the Association, Tom Murphy. He told us breakfast was being served inside and I was hungry so in we went after registering. Following a few quick bites we headed to find the vendors. Specifically Bingo Supply Center, the ones that our VFW does business with. The Mtn Grove VFW has dealt with them for a number of years and has never had any urge to seek our supplies anywhere else - they do take good care of our bingo supply needs. We visited a bit and I snapped the following photos of the Bingo Supply Center team.
This is Linda, head order taker and phone answerer. This is the second time I had met her and was pleased to see her again. She is always so pleasant and sweet when I happen to call her with our orders or other needs. Truly a sweet gal.
This is Cathy and Mitch. Mitch is the owners son and recently entered into the company after working for years in other businesses and has another location in the state. Says good things about a company when they double their outlets in one year. Now they are on both sides of the state and ready to take care of the licensed bingo halls needs in the state of Missouri. They were very pleasant and I look forward to working with them in the future.
And Finally this is Darry, he is the President of the Corporation and a real expert when it comes to bingo in Missouri. He started the company in 1997. I always enjoy picking his mind about bingo and about how to improve our game. I did find two new games while visiting with him and will introduce them to our players one at a time beginning this coming week. Both should create excitement and fun for our players and our bingo volunteers. After visiting with the Bingo Supply Center team we headed back to the conference room to enjoy the agenda and learn. The part that Ed and I drove all that way to attend was over around 11:30 and we stayed and were fed at B.T.Bones and had a real enjoyable meal visiting with one of the board members, Mr Charles Brown of St Louis, MO. We then went back up to the vendors area and visited with Darry and the crew some more before heading back to Norwood.
We had an interesting Farmers Day this year but not all the Grandkids were in the Kiddie Parade. Two were in the parade," Flossie" and" Lil". I have added photos from their participation below.
"GrandMa" dressing the goat for "Flossie " to lead in the Kiddie Parade. "Flossie" and GrandMa walked the goat to town. Their story of the walk is quite a tale.
Just before the goat was dressed.
Walking in the parade.
"Flossie" won 1st place for "Best Dressed Pet"
"Lil" dressed her bike and herself up for the parade.
"Lil" won 1st place for best dressed bike. Look at that smile.
Two of the Grandkids were in the Main Parade and their photos are below.
Here is "Skeezix" holding the goat on the FFA float. This is his first year in FFA. The goat was able to get itself into both parades.
Not sure what group "Flossie" is with here in the main parade but she is handing out candy along with others in her group. She was able to make both parades.
Two of the Grandkids were able to ride Carl Kelley's ponies during the Farmers Day. Photos below are of them having the time of their lives. By the time he had opened up though my youngest Grandson "Bucky" had already left for the day. I so much wanted him to ride as well. I went to Farmers Day with a pocketful of ones so I could let them ride a lot.
Grandkids are helping me move newly weaned calves from their hutches to their first pen. The calves are about 9 weeks old and "Lil" is the BRAVE Granddaughter in the video.
Wife and I traveled to Lake Dawson last Saturday evening as we hadn't been there in quite some time. It seems the Lake Dawson enterprises has added some more features to the place. They now have Lake Dawson Gardens in addition to the restaurant and fishing lake.
Our Nephew, Lance, is the proprietor of Lake Dawson Enterprises along with his brother MIke. Above is one of the giant pumpkins they grew this summer. This is the largest and it is 24 inches long and 16 inches tall. Lance stated that when it quit growing they were going to weight it. Seeds from this pumpkin will be offered for sale for the coming growing season. Place you order early.
It seems that Lake Dawson Enterprises is growing. Lance recently added this John Deere to the inventory of tools that make Lake Dawson Enterprises flourish.
This relaxing hammock has also been recently added. My wife, Glinda, is giving it a test run.
The Grillmaster, Mike, is preparing the evenings special on yet another new tool that has been added. A charcoal grill by Kingsford. He is preparing pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon. Also was large Mariachi hot peppers on ka-bob sticks and fresh okra on ka-bob sticks as well. The peppers and okra was picked fresh from Lake Dawson Gardens just before being prepared. Cant get any fresher than that.
The evening's selection of music was awesome and we finally had to take our leave knowing we will look forward to the next time we can visit Lake Dawson Enterprises.
We had callers this afternoon and had a nice visit with my brother, Patrick and his family. They had traveled to the area to attend a family reunion on his mother's side of the family and dropped in to visit a spell. Below is a photo taken as they were preparing to leave.
Patrick, Nancy and Sean.
I and my brother, Patrick.
Sean has his learner's permit and the parents are being brave and allowing the freedom to learn to drive. The short video below is the first time he has driven while leaving our house. Not bad.
A little history most people will never know. Interesting. Veterans' Statistics off the Vietnam Memorial Wall:
There are 58,267 names now listed on that polished black wall, including those added in 2010.
The names are arranged in the order in which they were taken from us by date and within each date the names are alphabetized. It is hard to believe it is 36 years since the last casualties.
The first known casualty was Richard B. Fitzgibbon, of North Weymouth , Mass. Listed by the U.S. Department of Defense as having been killed on June 8, 1956. His name is listed on the Wall with that of his son, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Richard B. Fitzgibbon III, who was killed on Sept. 7, 1965.
There are three sets of fathers and sons on the Wall.
39,996 on the Wall were just 22 or younger.
8,283 were just 19 years old.
The largest age group, 33,103 were 18 years old.[57%]
12 soldiers on the Wall were 17 years old.
5 soldiers on the Wall were 16 years old.
One soldier, PFC Dan Bullock was 15 years old.
997 soldiers were killed on their first day in Vietnam ..
1,448 soldiers were killed on their last day in Vietnam ..
31 sets of brothers are on the Wall.
Thirty one sets of parents lost two of their sons.
54 soldiers attended Thomas Edison High School in Philadelphia .I wonder why so many from one school.
8 Women are on the Wall. Nursing the wounded.
244 soldiers were awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War; 153 of them are on the Wall.[91 survived?]
Beallsville, Ohio, population, 475, lost 6 of her sons.[1.26% of population]
West Virginia had the highest casualty rate per capita in the nation.
There are 711 West Virginians on the Wall.
The Marines of Morenci - They led some of the scrappiest high school football and basketball teams that the little Arizona copper town of Morenci (pop. 5,058) had ever known and cheered. They enjoyed roaring beer busts. In quieter moments, they rode horses along the Coronado Trail, stalked deer in the Apache National Forest,and in the patriotic camaraderie typical of Morenci's mining families, the nine graduates of Morenci High enlisted as a group in the Marine Corps. Their service began on Independence Day, 1966. Only 3 returned home.
The Buddies of Midvale - LeRoy Tafoya, Jimmy Martinez, Tom Gonzales were all boyhood friends and lived on three consecutive streets in Midvale, Utah on
Fifth, Sixth and Seventh avenues. They lived only a few yards apart. They played ball at the adjacent sandlot ball field. And they all went to Vietnam. In a span of 16 dark days in late 1967, all three would be killed. LeRoy was killed on Wednesday, Nov. 22, the fourth anniversary of John F. Kennedy's assassination. Jimmy died less than 24 hours later on Thanksgiving Day. Tom was shot dead assaulting the enemy on Dec. 7, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day.
The most casualty deaths for a single day was on January 31, 1968 ~ 245 deaths.
The most casualty deaths for a single month was May 1968 - 2,415 casualties were incurred.
Most Americans who read this will only see the numbers that the Vietnam War created. To those of us who survived the war, and to the families of those who did not, we see the faces, we feel the pain that these numbers created. We are, until we too pass away, haunted with these numbers, because they were our friends, fathers, husbands, wives, sons and daughters.
There are no noble wars, just noble warriors.
I didnt write this but received it in an e-mail from a friend. Just thought I would share.
IJK
I thought I was going to have a calm restful Father's Day. Got the morning chores done early and wasnt expecting anyone but that is not the way it worked. By the time the night was over I had all three of our children, their spouses and all eight grandchildren. The fresh corn was ready to pick and Glinda had prepared a pot of beans. So she was ready to feed them all on short notice. Didnt have quite enough meat so Brandan raided their freezer and brought some more up. Everyone had plenty and the fresh corn was awesome.
left to right, youngest son Jacob, oldest son Francis, Francis spouse Jenni, Jacob spouse Amanda and in background daughter Mitzi.
It was a hot day so Glinda got a sprinkler out for the grandkids to play in. The video below was taken of their frolicking fun.
It was sure great having all their at once on a pleasant day. IJK
We had so many cherries this year that there were two cherry picking days. The slide show above is my wife, granddaughter and sister-in-law picking on a Saturday evening following evening chores. The photos below were taken 8 days later on a Sunday morning. They are my friend Ed, my friend Ruth and her son Austin. After they finished picking the cherries Ruth had noticed all the mulberry trees around and they picked a bunch of mulberries as well. Some of the photos are of that and then they returned the following Tuesday to pick more mulberries around the edge of a hay field.
When they returned on Tuesday Ruth discovered this very unusual mulberry tree in the photo below.
You will notice that the berries are white and ripe. They seemed to taste sweeter than the regular purple mulberries. Now the question is how do we get a start of this tree to raise some more like it?
All in all a successful cherry and mulberry year even though it was a full month earlier than usual. Cheerily IJK
This one was taken prior to the start of the event.
left to right - Norwood Superintendent Eaton, Norwood High School Principal Wilbanks, Board member Shawn Chadwell, Board member Didi Richardson, and Board member John Cramer. All the board members present were in the photo and all pictured are Norwood graduates themselves.
"Flo" receiving her diploma.
Recessional
The 8th Grade Class of 2013 - Norwood R-1 Schools
"Flo" and her family. The little one on the right is being miffed and her brother was involved in a high school baseball game at Hartville.
"Flo" and her Grandmother Kelley
"Flo" and her grandparents Campbell, Paul and Linda.
We are now committed as Skeezix and I have dismantled the old greenhouse and there is not turning back now. We continued with this operation until we had it all cleaned up and ready to mow the area.
We have greenhouse building materials on hand and ready to begin.
The frame is up and ready to continue.
Shelves for the plants and the ends are framed in.
North end
North end again. Made the hinge for the door from very used baler belting.
Shelves were made from stacking old tires with the rims still inside two high and then laying old tin for the actual shelf. Used screws like the ones for putting on metal roofing to attach the time in place. Dimensions of the greenhouse are approx 14 feet long and 12 feet wide. Have less than $200 invested.
This is Linda, head order taker and phone answerer. This is the second time I had met her and was pleased to see her again. She is always so pleasant and sweet when I happen to call her with our orders or other needs. Truly a sweet gal.
This is Cathy and Mitch. Mitch is the owners son and recently entered into the company after working for years in other businesses and has another location in the state. Says good things about a company when they double their outlets in one year. Now they are on both sides of the state and ready to take care of the licensed bingo halls needs in the state of Missouri. They were very pleasant and I look forward to working with them in the future.
And Finally this is Darry, he is the President of the Corporation and a real expert when it comes to bingo in Missouri. He started the company in 1997. I always enjoy picking his mind about bingo and about how to improve our game. I did find two new games while visiting with him and will introduce them to our players one at a time beginning this coming week. Both should create excitement and fun for our players and our bingo volunteers.
Just before the goat was dressed.
Walking in the parade.
Not sure what group "Flossie" is with here in the main parade but she is handing out candy along with others in her group. She was able to make both parades.
"Lil"
"Little Ike"
left to right, youngest son Jacob, oldest son Francis, Francis spouse Jenni, Jacob spouse Amanda and in background daughter Mitzi.
