6/16 Anderson - Happy Father's Day!!

We are definitely heading straight into summer - 1 week away and it feels like we are already there.  The temps have been hanging around 90 and low of 55 or so.  It is supposed to cool off this week but don't expect any rain - bummer.  We are very dry and sure need some moisture - looks like all that water is going to the East coast. 

Two week ago I noted that there would be more to come on the golf ball storage problem we are having.  That issue has been resolved - a week ago I got rid of 18K and today 12k, 30 K golf balls we have been hanging out in various storage spaces.   I contacted a fellow in Nevada and he came over to collect them from us.  They prefer to have dirty balls - mine are cleaned, sorted and packaged for resale.  We had to break the bags down -  that was a pain but we got the job done.  Kathy took some pics to show the stash - hard to believe we collected that many?  I will still collect golf balls and sell them on craigslist.  I am sure the inventory won't accumulate at the same rate?!  We are both glad to have the storage area back - I am sure we will find something to fill it!!

Two pictures on the left are the Tracy stash (18,000) the middle is the Anderson stash (12,000) and the right is one happy camper with an abundance of storage!!!
 

Kathy has been very busy at work, they are going through a voluntary reduction in force.  They have  a special separation package for those that have been with the lab for some time.  The purpose is to help with the budget issues they are having.  They did exceed their goal and it will help the budget but they should have done it early in the year - my guess it would have been a good break even point - now they are behind the 8 ball again.  Kathy lost two people and now she has 2 new folks to cover for the loss.  Kathy now has to train the new folks and get the assignments sorted out to get things rolling smoothy again.  The timing could not be any worse for her - they are getting ready to start closing out the budget year and bring in the new budget - this work does increase the workload for Kathy and her people.   Last week was filled with lots of extra work for Kathy to get her folks cleared out and she coordinated the retirement parties for them as well!!  She is very glad to have that behind her!!

The fellow that rents out pasture is having fits with his cows.  They are all pretty high strung and spook very easily.  In the adjacent pasture there is a herd of cows with calves.  They recently put a bull in the adjacent pasture and the cows in our pasture are all riled up.  One on them went through the fence 2 days ago - they were able to catch it and took it to their property.  They were going to move the other two that were in our pasture yesterday - those two bolted and went through the fence and into the adjacent pasture.  Now they are stuck with trying to sort out the cows accordingly.  The fellow said he is not bringing these cows back - he said he would be bringing cows that behave themselves.  It does not really bother us either way - - raising cows does have issues.  I am sure they are used to these kind of things.  Watch this space to a status on the misbehaving cows.

Kathy has a change in her alternate work schedule and we will be back up here next week end.  That works out fine as the neighborhood watch group are meeting Friday night.   This is a greet and meet meeting plus some open discussion about pushing forward on setting up some type of civilian patrol.  Many of the areas are taking on this activity with the cuts in budgets for the local police and sheriff departments their coverage is minimal and they are certainly understaffed for our area.  It will be nice to meet the neighbors and interesting to see if the patrol thing works out?

Not much else for news - - headed into the second half of the year already.  Hard to believe we have half of the year gone already and the end of year will be upon us before we know it!!?? 

Hope you all have a great week end and great week.  Happy Father's Day as well!!

More later

Ron, Kathy, Tessie and Sammie  ( the cat)

6 /1 Anderson

We are kicking off the month of June with temperatures at the century mark.  Supposed to top that today but we have a slight breeze that should keep us below that mark.  Next week is filled with several 100 plus days - welcome Summer just a little early.  There was some rain last week - not much accumulation and it did not do much for improving the dry conditions.  We are in a red flag period this week end several of them this year already.  The number of fires is certainly up and it will not let up throughout  the summer months.

Kathy returned from her trip from Colorado - she had a good time and enjoyed seeing the families again.  She got to attend the high school graduation for her niece that was fun and reflective for her.  She also got to spend some quality time with family members - the time went quickly and I am sure she was not able to do all the things she wanted due to the lack of time?  She has enjoyed the reflective  week end ready to get back in to the routine after a little R &R.  This is a busy period at her work that they are going through some staff reductions which does not help the workload.  Things will work out fine and the end of year closing will be over before she knows it.

I was able to get lots of chores done last week in Tracy.  I did keep very busy and I did get most of the projects done that I had on my list.  Most of the work in the yard was done as  follow-up to the removal of the big trees in the yard.  Those pesky big trees were definitely a pain and we are glad to be done with them.  Neighbors liked the trees better than now but had little appreciation of the hassle and mess they created.  One of my big projects was to clean up the golf balls that were accumulating in the garage - I think there may have been about 4500 to clean?  Side issue, our washer went out so I had to clean out golf balls that were in the laundry room so they could get the old washer out and new one it.  I ended up moving about half of those balls to the spare bedroom closet - Kathy purged is some time go and I am sure she had plans to putting something in it but the balls are now residing for hopefully a short term storage.  Back to ball cleaning - I devoted 3 evenings ( 6 - 9)  to cleaning balls, made a good dent in the backlog.  I have about 300 soaking in the sink and another 10 bags (2000 balls) in the garage ready to get cleaned.  I do have the balls listed for sale but don't seem to be having much luck with that this year.  I need to find some place of offload a large batch of them.  I do have the ideas about that and will start making contacts - - watch this space.

Lots of yard work here in Anderson this week end - routine lawn and weed removal.  One project was to get rid of the blackberry plants that were burned down last Winter.  Those critters are tenacious - got rid of the vines but the root remains and they are producing new growth already.  I went back back and removed the roots for those plants and that should rid the area of future growth.  The removal really is a 2 part process - remove the vine then the roots.  It is much easier working with the roots don't have to deal with the prickly vines as much? 

The cows are doing very good - they have really put on some weight in the last couple of weeks.  We have lots of grass and they are enjoying it all.  The fellow that is renting the pasture came over and seems very happy with the cows and their accommodations.   Kathy and I have given them names already - each of them has a different personality.  They are not like the others cows that were here - only one that had a personality was Blackie and she was a major pain the backside.  These cows seem much more behaved and will be fine in the pasture. 

I did get to play golf several times last week - cooler mornings and the wind blew hard each day.  I am getting tired of the wind - seems to be pretty gentle when I start at 6:15 or so but by the time I finish up it is very strong.  Easy to forget that the spring and summer does have lots of wind!?   One of the course marshals wanted it clubs re-griped so I volunteered - he went to Mexico last week so I had his clubs.  It was a easy project and I think I had it all done in a hour or so.  The most difficult part is removing the old double stick tape from the club handle.  The process is very straight forward.  I think the course wanted bout $8 per club.  He paid $28 for the grips and I am not charging him anything for my labor.  He gets 12 re-grips for $28 that is a pretty good deal.  I hope he likes the new grips.  I talked him into the jumbo grips - hope he does not have much trouble adjusting?

Not much else for news - hope you all have a great week end and a wonderful week.

More later

Ron, Kathy, Tessie and Sammie ( the cat)