Vehicles Unloaded

First ramp down, as we prepare the truck to move

With just a little help from our friends, as the Beatles song goes, we were able to get the Model A truck and coupe parts unloaded.  With the weight of these vehicles we needed the help to push the truck off the trailer and back it into the garage.

And the larger parts of the coupe were heavy and needed the muscles of the guys who came to help move it out of the back of the rental truck and to the spot it will sit until we can begin the building and restoration process.

Once everything was settled, Kevin swept the rental out and got it ready to return, then was able to relax, put his feet up and enjoy our beautiful sunset.

Home Again, Home Again...

After dropping Kevin and his mom off last Tuesday at the airport for their respective flights to different destinations (see last post),  Kevin had a short visit with my parents then spent the following 4 days logging miles on his drive back across country in the Penske rental truck and towing the Model A Ford.

Our week was spent doing our various routines, but definitely feeling the absence of Kevin/dad and even the dogs had their moments of being in funky moods as a result.  So when he pulled up out front yesterday, we all ran out to greet him.

After a bit of maneuvering Kevin backed the truck and trailer into our driveway in line with the garage for unloading.  The tarp covering the truck was in pretty bad shape after it's long haul, but still managed to hang in there. So the unveiling process began, and then ta da - there was the Model A.

Here it is a 1930 Model A Ford pick up ( I said it was a '32 in my last post - oops)

It looked so small compared to what I'd remembered growing up when I used to sit in it in my parents garage and pretend to drive.  Then when I was actually old enough to drive taking it out on the empty lot first and then the streets learning to find the non synchronized gears as I drove this classic in my old neighborhood.

Look at how tiny this engine is compared to the ones in our trucks today!!

It's sat for a long time in my parents garage, and now we're planning to give it a new lease on life.  In the back of the rental truck are pieces of a 1928 Coupe, that will take A LOT more work to be up and running, but with time and effort we can make that happen.

Once inside, the dogs got to greet Kevin and as we settled back into our routines, all was back to normal in our world. He gave his mom a call to let her know he'd arrived safely and to get the flight information for picking her up today.

Bea and Bear greeting Kevin

 Now it's time for the unloading to begin and finding places for all of the goods Kevin's returned with.
You can see in this photo, Beas thrilled her world is back in it's proper order.

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And They're Off

EARLY this morning, as in 3:30 A.M., Kevin and I picked up his mom and headed to Orlando airport for Grandma's flight to Pennsylvania for her visit with family there, and Kevin's flight to California where he will get the rental truck to carry the goods and model A truck from my parents home for his solo cross country trip home.

This was the trip my dad had originally planned to make with him, while my mom flew here to Florida to wait with us for their arrival.  Sadly, dads health issues and hospitalization had to put a stop to these plans, but with his ticket already purchased and plans made Kevin decided to move ahead with the trip.

Signing "I love you" for us, it was time for Kevin to head off

After dropping both off to catch their respective flights it was home to our still sleeping kids and dogs, to begin the wait for Kevin/dad's return home.  He'll keep touch as he travels and began this morning by leaving each of us a note at our places at the table.

Girls holding their notes.

So we'll keep ourselves busy here, as we follow his travel progress cross country.

Dad/Grandpa's Home

After 9 days in the hospital being poked, prodded and checked inside and out, my dad was able to go home after the blood clots in his legs and lungs were treated.  They found too that his oxygen levels were too low, so for now they want him to remain on oxygen to ensure he gets what his body needs to aid healing and his overall state of health.

Dad enjoying a snack on their patio, Thanks to my sister for the photo update : )

I am very grateful to everyone for your prayers, and to God that he allowed this to be found and dealt with before things may have taken a turn for the worse.  Dad's doctors are baffled as to why he didn't show more symptoms, considering the degree of clotting he had, but dad's always been strong and a tad bit stubborn about acknowledging he can't push through not feeling so great (smile).  Just glad to see him home again and able to enjoy having the freedom to get up and move around.  Something we all take for granted, until you find yourself stuck in a hospital room with limited mobility and others dictating your moves.  They took great care of him and were very diligent to deal with what needed to be done to get him back on his feet again, so I'm thankful for everyone who was attending to him.

Kevin is due to travel out to California soon, and the plan was he'd fly out, rent a truck and trailer as he'll be bringing some things and towing a 1932 Model A Ford pick up truck back.  Dad was originally to have traveled back with him and my mom was going to fly out so when they arrived we could all spend some time visiting and have an earlier celebration of his 80th birthday.  Travel is now out of the question at this time for him, but Kevin already had flight arrangements and the truck set up, so  is still going to follow through with flying back and will be driving cross country on his own.  I'll plan a separate visit by myself, to be there for a birthday celebration of this 80 year milestone.

That's it for now - giving thanks for so much!!

August Ends And September Begins

Wow, summer is officially over and our school year has begun again!!  The girls started back with school work half way through August to ease our way into the routine, but now it's full speed ahead for Hannah in the 5th grade and Lauren in 3rd.  This is a case of the students being much happier about this than teacher, aka Mom.  I like my summer breaks and wouldn't mind it lasting longer, but let the homeschooling begin again.

I'm a bit behind in posting so I'll do a recap our our last few weeks of activity.  We had another chance to visit with the Bartlinski family at their vacation house near Orlando.  It was another fun day for the girls to play and the adults to spend time talking.  Loved it!!

The last of the shed's came together and we can now pull stuff out of the garage to organize and make more space that will allow a vehicle to actually park in there!!

After the heat of the last couple of months we cleared out the struggling and dead plants from the Vertical Garden System and Towers .  With this done, I took apart and cleaned one of the towers and I've started seedlings to begin our new growing season.  Over the next couple of weeks we'll take apart the other two towers and clean them as well.  We have a lot more shade cloth up on the structures Kevin made to help offset the intense afternoon sun.  As cooler temperatures arrive we can remove these.

The empty and cleaned tower on the left, the middle one has a few new lettuce plants and kale that is still thriving, the last tower on the right still has okra, eggplant and a tomato that are healthy.  I'll wait until I can clean it before adding more plants to the second and third towers.

With most of the plants removed from the vertical garden, we cleaned the pipes, trimmed the remaining herbs and root systems and are ready to add the seedlings once they have sprouted enough to put in here.

Seedlings started

Our raised gardens on the opposite side of the house got a good trimming to tame the jungle of squash vines and keep what was left healthy.  Once we managed to control the awful pickle worm that ruined so much of our squash, we got a pretty good harvest of butternut squash and pictured here are only a few of the MANY eggplants we harvested from the towers.

Our gardens each have papaya's growing in them.  They were each about a foot tall when I planted them, but look how much they've grown and they have fruit starting on each one.

We celebrated Grandma's birthday with a party and swimming at Pat and Jen's who were down here from Pennsylvania.

Cameron's on his 3rd month and 3rd set of classes after getting A's in the last 4 classes he took over the past 2 months.  It is a very accelerated paced school program, and really keeps him on the go, but he is loving it.

Dragonfly on the top of my tea plant and a lizard on the trunk

Closeup of the dragonfly, not bad for this having to be photographed from inside the house

Finally, we've been anxiously awaiting new updates on my dad and praying for complete healing as he was admitted to the hospital this past Tuesday with blood clots in both legs and lungs.  He's in great spirits despite this and still brags it's only the second time in his almost 80 years that he's been in the hospital.

Dad with a get well bear my sister got him along with a snickers bar to ease the boredom of being in the hospital

That's a quick recap of the last month of summer and the beginning of Fall.  The temperature doesn't reflect this new season yet, and I will be happy when it does.  That's it for now.  Take care.